


Anything You Say

by milominderbinder



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Cop Alec, Cop Jace, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Smut, Forensic Expert Magnus, Getting Together, Lighthearted Police Procedural, M/M, No Overarching Crime Plot, Pathologist Isabelle, Police AU, Sketch Artist Clary, Texting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:19:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 87,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6157942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milominderbinder/pseuds/milominderbinder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Detective Alec Lightwood likes his job.  He likes the order of it, likes helping people, likes that he gets to work with Jace and that Izzy is always right downstairs in the morgue too.  He's wanted to be a cop ever since he was a kid, just like his parents before him, and now he's living that dream.  His life should be perfect.</p><p>There's just one problem.  Their precinct has just gotten a new forensic expert -- Magnus Bane.  </p><p>And honestly, he's so cute that Alec's kind of losing his mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY so this is honestly entirely inspired by the scene of magnus and isabelle last ep, and my intense feels on the fact that izzy is apparently the best forensic pathologist in new york. I BELIEVE THAT ABOUT HER, what a science babe. and then i got thinking how many other perfect ways the characters would transfer to a cop!au setting, and lo and behold, this happened! i regret nothing
> 
> i should disclaim that i know nothing about new york police proceedings. any info about stuff like that will be vaguely bullshitted by my knowledge from tv shows. also i'm picturing this police precinct like the one in brooklyn 99, but with the basement morgue area like from iZombie. so. do with those mental images what you will
> 
> okay, enough waffling, hope you enjoy!

“Have you met the new forensics guy yet?”

Izzy’s butt lands on the edge of Alec’s desk with a _thump,_ sending a few errant pieces of paperwork scattering onto the dull lino floor.  She doesn’t seem to care.  Doesn’t seem to care that he’s quite obviously still working, either, is halfway through filling out an incident report on the computer, or that her choice of seat is messing up his rather carefully organised workspace.  Alec rolls his eyes, shoving his keyboard away -- he knows from experience that he won’t be getting any more work done until Izzy leaves.

“Shouldn’t you be working?” he questions.  She’s not wearing her lab coat and she’s surely not made the long trek up from the basement just to ask him that question.  Especially since the elevator’s broken and she’s in six inch heels.

“It’s lunchtime _._ I want you to come get a taco with me.  And that’s not answering my question.”

She raises one sharp eyebrow and looks at him expectantly.  Unfortunately Alec doesn’t have a clue what she’s waiting for.  He pushes his chair back and stoops to pick up the few bits of paper she’d knocked loose when she sat down.

“No, I haven’t met him.  I didn’t know we even had a new forensics guy.  What happened to the old one?”

“Alec!  You went to Toby’s retirement party three days ago, no way have you forgotten that already.  You’re terrible.”

“Oh.”  Alec had sat in a corner of a slightly grimy bar nursing one beer for three hours because Jace and Izzy needed a designated driver.  He’d kind of thought it was a party for the janitor who’d just had a baby.  That or the return of the crime scene tech who’d been on medical leave after wandering into a contaminated meth lab a few months back.  “Okay, so?”

Izzy huffs and fixes him with a look, head tilted and lips thin, which perfectly imitates the one his mother used to give the moment before she’d say _you’re grounded._

“I haven’t met him yet either, that’s why I’m asking!  I mean, he’ll be the only other living soul down in that basement with me most of the time.  I hope we get on.”

“Can’t be worse than Toby,” Alec points out.  Izzy scrunches up her nose -- for once, they’re on the same page.  Toby sucked.

“Lunch,” she insists, and that's the end of that.

Alec shuts down his computer and grabs his coat and follows Izzy down the stairs and out of the building and across the street, and by the time they’re getting served their tacos out the back of her favourite food truck, she’s _still_ talking about the new forensics guy.  Apparently his name is Bane, and he’s transferring from another precinct so he’s not a newbie or anything, and the only one who’s actually seen him so far is Maureen, who works the front desk, because he’s been filling out paperwork all morning.

“I was talking to her in the break room and she told me he’s hot,” Izzy informs Alec around a mouthful of taco.  She shivers a little, shoves herself closer into his shoulder.  They’re sat on a bench outside the precinct, freezing through their coats because Brooklyn in late October is already cold enough to seem like the air itself is frosting over.  

“I don’t suppose you thought to ask her anything about whether he’s actually good at his _job,_ huh?” he says, and then takes a bite of his own lunch.  It’s not spicy enough.  After growing up on their mom’s cooking, nothing ever is.

“It’s not like _all_ we talked about were his looks.  I’m not a total ditz, you know.”

“You’re not a ditz at all.” She really isn’t, she’s the best pathologist in New York, and she’ll kick him with her stilettos if he implies otherwise.  He knows from experience.

“Yeah, _well._ Apparently he’s good.  Maureen only heard from her friend Tia who works at his old precinct, but apparently he’s both a genius and extremely eccentric.  Her words.”

“The last thing this precinct needs is more eccentrics,” Alec mutters.  Izzy hits him in the arm, the foil of her taco crinkling noisily like a soundtrack to her disapproval.

“God, Alec, you’re such a buzzkill,” she says, laughing just a little bit, so he knows she’s not really mad.  “You even take the fun out of gossiping about hot guys.”

“Well, I certainly didn’t force you to hang out with me.  Not my fault it’s Clary’s day off.”

“And Jace’s,” she says, though obviously Alec has established that from the fact that he's been lacking a partner all day.  “Bet you I can guess what they’re up to right now.  Here’s a hint -- it involves a _highly_ creative use of his handcuffs.”

“Oh -- Izzy!” he protests, and she bursts into a moment laughter -- proper laughter this time, the kind that makes her dimples come out.

“Relax, Alec, the straight sex can’t _actually_ come and attack you.”

“I’m yet to be convinced of that,” Alec mumbles, wrinkling his nose at the remainder of his taco.  He’s pretty sure he just lost his appetite.

\-----

They walk back into the precinct together, Izzy looking completely neat and flawless as she always does, her red lipstick not smudged an inch despite the fact that she’s just eaten the messiest lunch in the world.  At the stairs they’re due to take different directions, but before he can escape Izzy stops him with a hand on his arm.  Even with her killer heels she barely comes up to his shoulder, and she has to tilt her head back to properly fix him with her big brown stare.

“Hey.  Come over for dinner tonight?” she says, not really a question.  “Jace is gonna be there, we can check him for bruises.”  That is so not appealing.  It gets even less appealing when she adds, “I’m cooking.”

Alec snorts through his nose, breaks away from her.

“I’ll bring takeout,” he says, but grins a little.  He lets her slap him on the arm once more, and then she heads back down to the basement to hang out with her corpses, and he goes back to his paperwork.  Just a regular day.

\-----

It becomes _not_ a regular day a couple of hours later, all thanks to a call from Jace.  Every troublesome event in Alec’s life since he was twelve years old has started with Jace.  He’s just sat there all innocent at his desk, finishing up on his paperwork for the week and mulling over their latest case in the back of his mind, when his cell blares.  It’s loud; Branwell glares at him from the next desk over as he shoves his pen behind his ear and fumbles in his pocket to answer.

“Listen, I totally forgot,” is the first thing Jace says when Alec picks up.

“I’m gonna take a wild stab in the dark -- this is related to paperwork,” Alec guesses.  Jace is a good cop, intuitive and energetic and can send you to hell with any kind of weapon, but he seems to have some kind of mental block when it comes to the administrative side of things.  Alec actually kind of likes paperwork, but everyone else in the precinct considers him a freak for that.

“You know me so well,” Jace says, and Alec can hear a voice mumbling something in the background.  Clary.  Fuck, he hopes Izzy wasn’t onto something when she guessed they were using their day off for gross sex.  “I was supposed to send the chain of custody forms for the Thitch case down to forensics.  I even filled them out and everything, you’d be proud!  But now they’re just sitting in my desk.”

Alec chances a look over to Jace’s desk.  It's not exactly _messy_ , because Jace is somehow even more anally clean than Alec, but the sheer amount of paperwork backlog is enough to draw comparison to a jungle.  There are heaps upon heaps of neatly arranged but still overwhelming folders; most of the precinct agree it's risky to even approach that area of the room, for fear you might disrupt the atmosphere and end up a casualty of a manila avalanche.

“Where are the forms?” Alec sighs.

\-----

Fifteen minutes later, he’s extracted the right form out of a precarious heap, brushed the dust off it, and is trekking down the long flight of metal stairs that lead to the basement.  They really need to get the lift fixed soon -- the morgue and labs are never exactly fun places to visit anyway, but they become even less appealing when he has to scale four flights of stairs every time.

He gets there eventually, though, and pushes open the heavy metal doors, calling out, “Izzy?”  He’s not there to see her but he doesn’t actually know who the new forensics guy is yet, as his sister had been so keen to discuss earlier.

She doesn’t respond immediately, so Alec takes a few more steps inside, letting the door thud shut behind him.  The morgue is all white tile and silver gurneys, and always colder than the rest of the building.  It’s the first thing you walk into when you enter the basement room, but if you keep going, there’s another door in the far wall that takes you through to the forensics labs.  Those, too, tend to be cold, scarily sterile, and smell of the dentist.  The only other door out of the morgue leads to a little break room, with a microwave and a mini fridge and a frightening collection of novelty mugs, just like every other break room Alec’s ever been in seems to have.

He crosses the room and pokes his head in that door first.

“Izzy?” he calls out again, though the room’s only small and he’s barely a step inside when he surmises she’s not there.  He’s about to turn around again and head into forensics, but --

“She’s out,” a voice pipes up from right behind him.  Alec, who considers himself a rather stoic guy and has seen a lot of grim stuff in his time on the force and rarely if ever gets scared, is ashamed it actually startles him so much that he jolts.

“Uh,” he says, spinning around to face the mystery voice.  He’s ready to ask about Izzy, make introductions, whatever -- only then he _sees_ the guy.  
And he freezes.

The man in the break room doorway is simply stunning.  Alec’s never been good with words, but that’s the first one that pops into his mind right then.  He’s just a little shorter than Alec, and dressed in clothes that surely must be impractical for such an environment -- tight black slacks, a red shirt made out of something silky with a shimmering pattern weaved into it, spiralling silver rings in his ears and an assortment of necklaces around his neck.  His dark hair is swept up at the front, and his eyes are heavily lined in dark makeup, and Alec looks into them, so deep and brown and somehow warm at their centre, and feels like he can’t catch his breath.

“She went on a coffee run.  I’m sure she’ll be back soon, if you’re planning on waiting for her,” the man continues.  His voice is just as gorgeous as the rest of him, silken and a little sophisticated.

“Um,” says Alec.  “I.  Uh.”  Fuck, he’s glad he didn’t get into a career that relies on his ability to talk, because he might have just lost it.  “You, uh, are you the -- new?  Um, the new forensics guy?”

The man looks incredibly amused, pressing his lips together even as they twitch into a smile, and raising one eyebrow.  Alec blushes.  He doesn’t actually think he’s ever been this flustered just from the _sight_ of someone before.

“That would be me, yes,” the man says, raising one hand and wiggling the elegant fingers in a wave.  He’s wearing red glitter nail polish.  Alec feels a little flush of heat in his stomach.  “Magnus Bane.  And you are?”

It takes a full two seconds for Alec to remember his name.

“Alec.  Lightwood.  Detective.  I mean -- I’m a detective here.”

“Ah, Lightwood!  Are you related to the charming Isabelle, then?”

“Little sister,” Alec says, thankfully without stuttering over it.  He takes a deep breath.  Maybe he can manage this conversation without passing out.  “I take it you guys met already?”

“We did indeed.  I must say, I’m pleased to see the delicious looks run in your family.”

Alec feels his whole face heat up.  Okay, he takes it back, he can’t do this.

“Uh -- okay, I should probably get -- oh, wait, I have forms.  For you.  Uh, they’re just chain of custody, here --” Alec quickly shoves his arms away and tries to focus on anything other than the softly amused quirk of Magnus’s mouth as he extracts the paper.  “Do you know what to do with them?”

“I’m sure I can figure it out,” Magnus says, eyes playful.  He leans a little into the doorframe, and, oh lord, that means Alec’s gonna have to walk right by him to get out of here.

“Um,” says Alec one last time, before dragging his eyes away from Magnus’s.  It feels like actual physical effort to look away from him.  “Nice to meet you.  Bye.”

Alec flees out the door, trying to fight back his blush and ignore the way their shoulders brush as he passes Magnus.  He makes it all the way out of the morgue and up the first flight of stairs before he stops, rubbing his hands over his face and resisting the urge to groan out loud at how much of a mess he is.  This is why he avoids anything even remotely resembling a love life; it’s altogether too embarrassing.  

All that’s left to do now is hope he doesn’t have another reason to visit the basement any time soon.  He’s not sure he’ll survive a second encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, chapter one! hope you guys enjoyed it, i'd love you forever if you leave a comment and let me know what you thought and what you'd like to see in the rest of this fic, because i haven't really plotted anything out yet <3
> 
> [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, thanks so much for the overwhelming response to the first chapter! i'm really glad you enjoyed the story so far, i adored all your comments and i've tried to respond to everyone, so please keep them coming!
> 
> to address a couple of things that multiple people asked:
> 
> there isn't gonna be an overarching crime plot to this story. yes, they all work in law enforcement and cases will be included, but it'll be pretty lighthearted and hopefully cute, just about alec and magnus's relationship and all the gang being friends! i'm not cut out to write serious crime fiction
> 
> also, simon is definitely gonna be in this, but he won't work for the police. but he'll appear soon so don't worry ^_^

No matter how many crime scenes Alec works or how many times he visits Izzy in the morgue, it never really stops being weird to see a dead body.  He’s far from squeamish, but still, he can’t help the little shudder that runs through his stomach as he looks into the lifeless eyes of their latest victim, spread out on the stained wooden floor of his studio apartment.  He doesn't let it affect his job, but w hen he’s finished examining him, Alec is quick to avert his eyes and straighten up, pulling off his latex gloves with a  _ snap. _

“Okay, I’m guessing the strangling was the cause of death, but we’ll get Izzy to confirm it,” Alec says, half to himself and half to Jace, who is examining a set of truly hideous throw pillows on the victim’s couch.  Judging by the wrinkling of his nose, Jace is more bothered by the cushions than the corpse.  “You said there was a witness?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jace confirms, turning back to Alec.  Jace ignores the few crime scene techs buzzing around and marches across the room to the wide open window, reaches through it and raps his knuckles against the rusting metal fire escape outside.  “Some upstairs neighbour locked herself out and was climbing the fire escape to get into her own apartment.  She looked through the window, saw the body, and some guy running out.  She only saw his face for a second, but it should be enough to at least get a composite sketch.”

Alec nods, eyes drifting around the room to make sure they haven’t missed anything.  The guy was only twenty five, younger than Alec, and it's strange trying to separate the relevant things from the simply sad.  There are all these signs of a life cut short; lights on, laptop still open and buzzing, half-drunk cup of coffee gone cold on the table. Just no signs of who did the cutting.

“Get her down to the station with Clary, then,” he says after a long moment’s pause.  Nothing more they can do here.

It’s impossible to not notice the way Jace perks up at the mention of his girlfriend’s name, eyes brightening and the all-business set of his mouth softening into something that’s almost the first hint of a smile.  They’ve only been together a couple of months, but that’s the longest Jace has ever been stuck with one girl, and it doesn’t seem like they’re on a track to ending things any time soon.  Alec thinks it’s disgusting how sappy his brother is becoming.  Well, disgusting and kind of cute.  Izzy says Alec’s just bitter because he’s so terminally single.

“Will do, partner,” Jace says, clapping Alec on the shoulder in that way that Alec hates.  “She’s with a couple of uniforms upstairs.  You can drive.”

Alec snorts.  

“The citizens of New York thank you for that,” he says.  The last thing they need is to crash another car.

\-----

Back at the precinct, Alec writes lists of all the evidence from the crime scene.  There isn’t much; hopefully the crime techs can find some DNA on the body, but there were no prints at the scene, no murder weapon left behind, not even much sign of a struggle.  Their best hope is the witness, so he’s mostly just waiting for Jace and Clary to get done with her.  Maybe the sketch will turn something up.

Then he runs the victim's records and researches him as much as he can, but after another hour that's getting him nowhere, either, so he shoves his pen behind his ear and decides to go in search of coffee.  The break room on their floor is always a little terrifying, usually smells like curry and has questionable stains in the microwave, but it does contain the holy grail of caffeine.  

He's stood there, sipping black coffee from the garish rainbow mug that has somehow, without his own approval or knowledge of how it happened, become known as his, when Clary finally turns up.  

“Alec, hey,” she says, smiling and crossing the room with a little too much bounce in her step for someone who just spent an hour with a murder witness.

Alec’s not always sure how he feels about Clary.  She's always nice, if a little fierce, but they don't really have much in common besides work and the fact that she's dating his brother.  He respects that she's good at her job, has helped them solve a lot of cases, and that she makes Jace about twenty percent less obnoxious.  He also respects that she wears converse to work.  He’s just not sure how to really talk to her.

“How'd it go?” he replies, all business, downing the last gulp of his coffee and then setting his mug down by the sink.

“Great!  Here's the sketch.”  She holds out a thin Manila folder, which Alec quickly takes and flips open.  It contains an incredibly detailed drawing of a guy he's never seen before in his life.  “Jace is just going over Savita’s story with her again.”

“Savita?”

Clary raises an eyebrow at him.

“The witness?”  

“Oh.  Right.”  Alec has a bit of a problem with looking at cases a little too factually, to the point where he forgets to learn the names of the people involved.  She's just  _ the witness _ in his head.  He’s aware of this tendency, but hasn’t actually made any strides to correct it.

Clary seems like she's expecting him to say something else, but when he doesn't, just stands there clutching the file and staring her down, she huffs and gives up.

“Okay, I gotta get down to the hospital and talk to some poor guy who got mugged.  Call me if you need anything else.”

If they need anything else, Jace will certainly be the first one to call Clary, but Alec doesn't say that and lets her leave.

Alec wrangles a uniform downstairs and quickly gets a BOLO out on the sketch as a person of interest, hoping someone will at least be able to identify the guy.  

His next stop after that is Izzy’s house of horrors.

When he gets down there, she's got her gloves off, long white lab coat rolled up at the sleeves, and is eating an apple.  Over a cadaver.  Alec’s stomach rolls just a little, but he pretends it doesn't and walks over, because it's not particularly cool to admit that your little sister is tougher than you.

“Hey big bro!” she chirps upon seeing him, bestowing one of her sweet red-lipped smiles.  “Want some apple?”

She holds it out in one hand, and then grabs something small in the other, offering him that too.  It takes a moment for Alec to see what it is, but as he draws closer --

“Is that  _ salt _ ?”

“Yep!  I read in a cookbook that putting salt in sweet things can actually help draw out the flavour.”

As if to prove her point, she shakes a slightly alarming amount of salt onto the pale flesh of the half eaten apple, and takes a big bite.  She looks very pleased with herself as she chews.  Alec has honestly never been able to decide if his sister is a terrible cook because she doesn't understand recipes, or whether she just has completely alien tastebuds that don’t process flavour like everyone else in the world.  He's increasingly sure it's the latter, because she always seems to be happy to eat her own concoctions, even if everyone else is throwing up into the houseplants or trying to wash their mouths out with soap.  Maybe it’s both.

“Your cholesterol’s gonna be through the roof,” he says, instead of calling her out of any of the rest of it -- by this point, she's a lost cause.

“How about you let the trained medical professional worry about her own health,” Izzy suggests, in a way that isn't really suggesting at all.  He quickly lets it drop.  “I'm guessing you're not just down here to swap recipes, though.  The Ritter autopsy?”

“Yeah,” he confirms, relieved to be off cooking and back on the safe topic of murder.  Izzy finishes the last bite of her apple, throws the core into the trash, and then reaches over a cadaver to grab a file.

“Just finished a minute ago.  Nothing exciting -- like you thought, I'm happy with ruling the COD strangulation.  Bruising is consistent with hands -- smaller than yours but bigger than mine, probably.  And time of death would match up with what your witness claims.”

It's the news he expected, but that doesn't make it particularly helpful.  Occasionally a case will be completely cracked by Izzy’s postmortem sleuthing, she’ll discover the killer’s hair in a wound or skin cells under the fingernails or even just an incredibly bizarre murder weapon that turns out to be the key to it all.  Unfortunately, it looks like this time solving it will be up to Alec.

“Okay.  Thanks, Iz,” he says.  “Can you email all that up to Jace, too?”

She nods, and Alec’s about to leave, but then a door opens and before he can process what’s happening --

“Oh, hello again,” says Magnus Bane.

“Uh.  Hi.”  Alec tries to ignore the blush spreading across his cheeks.  Magnus looks just as good as he did the first time Alec met him; today he’s wearing glitter around his eyes, soft purple pants and a long white lab coat rolled up to the elbows.  His arms are really pretty.  He still has a lot of silver jewellery in his ears and around his neck, but no rings -- Alec supposes they’d be pretty impractical in a lab.  

“Isabelle, I was just heading out for coffee, can I tempt you to join me?” He puts on a dazzling smile, looks right at Alec, and adds, “And your delightful brother too, of course.”

Izzy is looking back and forwards between them with a delighted and knowing smile.  Alec hates her.

“Alec didn’t tell me you guys had met,” she says, one eyebrow pointedly raised at her brother.

“We only met for a minute.  A few days ago,” he tells her.  He leaves out how he’d seen Magnus in the lobby the next day and had been so hopelessly caught off guard by his cuteness that he’d immediately ducked behind a janitor’s cart to avoid being seen, managing to spill his coffee all over himself in the process.  He’s sure she’ll interrogate him more about it later -- Izzy doesn’t let things go, it’s not in her nature, it’s why she probably would have made a hell of a cop if she weren’t such a science genius.  But hopefully she’ll wait til Magnus isn’t around to ask any embarrassing questions, like why Alec is blushing so much and seems even more incapable of getting out a sentence than usual.

“And a charming minute it was,” says Magnus.  He’s grinning.  Alec can’t tell whether he’s being made fun of or flirted with, to be honest -- maybe it’s a bit of both.  “So.  Coffee?”

A terrible amount of Alec wants to say  _ yes,  _ but there’s a dead body on the table in front of him and his sister looks terrifyingly keen anyway, so he shakes his head.

“Sorry.  I’ve, uh, got a murder to solve.”

As excuses go, he thinks that one’s pretty solid.  Magnus pouts a little with exaggerated disappointment.

“Well, another time.  I’m sure the citizens of Brooklyn will take a break from dying at  _ some _ point.”

Not in Alec’s experience, but that’s okay.  He doesn’t mind not having much of a life.

“Well I, for one, would  _ love  _ a coffee,” says Izzy.  “There’s nothing life-or-death hanging on whether I cut Mrs Zimmermann open now or in half an hour.”

Alec furrows his brow, forces himself to look at her for a moment instead of the blinding Magnus Bane.

“Must be nice,” he says.  He’s joking, but neither of them seem to notice.

\-----

Alec feels a little scattered after seeing Magnus again, but he forces himself to ignore it.  He has a job to do.  He can’t be getting flustered over every pretty boy who wanders into his path.  Not even if it’s kind of rare that he actually likes anyone, let alone gets flustered by them.  Not even if they’re really, really pretty, and not even if they might have been flirting with him and he hasn’t gotten laid in a tragically long time.  

_ Get it together,  _ he tells himself.   _ There are felonies to solve. _

\-----

Two days later, they find the guy from Clary’s sketch.  Ronnie Hurley.  Even his name sounds sleazy.

“What was your relationship to Ben Ritter?” Alec asks -- the victim’s name, which he has managed to remember.  Hurley sits across from him at the interrogation table and scowls.

“He stole my fuckin’ girlfriend is what.”

If Izzy was there she’d go on a bit rant about how it’s impossible to  _ steal  _ a girl who has her own free will, but Alec just settles for rolling his eyes a little.

“Where were you at eight AM on Monday?”

“Tucked up in bed asleep.  And alone,” says Hurley.  There’s a smug set to his lips that is almost impossible to ignore.  “Why?  You got any proof that says different?”

“He did it,” says Jace, as soon as Alec gets into the other room where Jace has been watching through the one-way mirror.

“Yeah, obviously,” Alec agrees.  “Only problem is there’s no way we can take him to trial based on one witness saying she caught a glimpse of his face while he was fleeing the apartment.  She didn’t even see the murder.”

“That’s bullshit,” says Jace, which is his way of agreeing with Alec.  There’s a long pause as they stare in at Ronnie Hurley together.  He’s pulling faces at the glass.  Eventually, Jace just says, “Well, I guess we’d better find some more evidence, then.”

Jace crosses his arms across his chest, looks sideways at Alec, and starts to grin.  This is one of the parts of their job that Jace loves best.

Alec rolls his eyes, but if he’s honest, he kind of loves it too.

\-----

Another day comes and goes, and Alec only goes down to the basement because he’s supposed to be giving Izzy a ride home.  She’s the one who asked him to meet down there, so of  _ course  _ she’s nowhere to be found when he arrives.  He checks for a text, but nope, nothing -- she’ll probably turn up in ten minutes and have no decent explanation for where she’s been.  For all he knows, she’s sneaking off to meet Meliorn again.

Alec’s about to disappear back out of the morgue, find somewhere a little warmer and less dead-body-filled to wait for his sister, when the door to the forensics lab opens and, once again, he is blindsided by Magnus Bane.  Magnus is just as sparkly as he has been every other time Alec’s seen him, and just as fashionable, and just as disruptive to Alec’s mental faculties.

“Well, if it isn’t New York’s finest,” says Magnus, and is Alec imagining the way his eyes trail up and down Alec’s body as he says that?  Magnus crosses half of the room til he’s just on the other side of an empty metal gurney, and grins. “How’s that murder treating you?”

“Oh,” says Alec, and can’t help the fact that his face twitches into the slight beginnings of a grin.  “Yeah, we’ve arrested the guy.  Got him dead to rights, so he’ll probably be pleading guilty.”

“You solved it?  So you’ve got beauty  _ and  _ brains,” says Magnus.  He’s definitely teasing, if his smug little smile is anything to go by, but Alec still shakes his head through his blush.

“Not just me.  Jace helped a lot.  He’s my partner, we always work cases together.  It’s just that I’m better at the research side of things, so I found out about the victim, and it turned out he was some kind of video blogger on youtube.  Not famous by a long shot but he would record a lot of his day to day life, kind of like candid-camera on himself.  I remembered that his laptop was still on when we got to the crime scene, so I took a shot, and it turned out that he’d been recording with his webcam at the time.  Hurley had deleted the footage of the murder from the laptop before Savita saw him and he ran out, but Ritter had all these back-up programs.  Our tech guys managed to recover enough of the video to prove what’d happened.  It was a lucky break.”

When Alec realises he’s been talking for a really long time and looks up, Magnus is staring at him.  It’s a little intense, and there’s a curiosity in Magnus’s eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“What?” Alec asks, fiddling with the sleeve of his leather jacket uncomfortably.  

“You’re different when you talk about your work,” says Magnus, voice kind of soft.  “I can tell how passionate you are about it -- you didn’t sound unsure, or stumble over your words.  And for the record, that doesn’t sound like much of a lucky break to me.  That sounds like some very good detective work.”

Alec can’t help the horrible flush of his cheeks at that.  He’s never been good at taking compliments, but taking them from someone as incredibly beautiful and clearly intelligent as Magnus?  It seems impossible.

“I, uh,” he says, before pathetically settling on, “Thanks.”

He looks up into Magnus’s warm brown eyes, and for a moment the whole morgue melts away, nothing managing to take focus away from the simple way Magnus is looking at him, and the way Alec can’t help but look back.  His breath feels shallow, his blood pumping too fast through his veins, leaving all of him a little dizzy.  There’s buzzing warmth in his throat and his lips and his stomach and the insides of his elbows.  It’s all too much and decidedly not enough.

“Alec?” calls a voice, and suddenly Alec is washed back to the cold, white-bright sterility of the morgue, nothing appealing about it.  He looks quickly away from Magnus and blinks a few times, trying to make his breath feel normal again.

“Uh, that’s Izzy,” he realises.  “I should go.  I’m giving her a ride home.”

“Right,” says Magnus.  His lips are half-smiling, and he doesn’t look as dazed as Alec feels, but there’s certainly something tender in his eyes that Alec really hopes he isn’t imagining.  “I’ll see you soon, I hope.”

“I -- yeah,” says Alec.  “Uh, maybe we’ll get a murder that needs forensics, or -- something.”

Oh, god, murder is not romantic.   _ Murder is not romantic.   _ Alec feels absolutely hopeless, and he thinks he’d blush more if he wasn’t already blushing as much as he is capable of.  He’s such a mess.

With one quick, pathetic wave, Alec turns and flees towards the door, where he can see his sister waiting with a raised eyebrow.  She’s gonna want to know what he was talking to Magnus about.  She’s going to be insufferable about it, he can tell.  Still -- dealing with Izzy has to be preferable to staying where he is.  At least he knows how to deal with her.  Magnus is just one big mystery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you guys enjoyed it! please leave a comment letting me know what you thought, i live for your feedback
> 
> and feel free to come talk to me or send me fic prompts on [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)!


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another chapter! so much love to all the people who've been commenting and talking to me on tumblr about this fic, i can't quite believe you're all enjoying it so much! 
> 
> this will probably be about my update speed, for anyone who's wondering, every 3-4 days. i wish i could write faster but i'm hopelessly unfocused. also i have, like, a degree to worry about. it should surprise nobody that i'm paying more attention to this fic than my assignments tho

“This is a total dead end.”

Alec huffs and just stares harder at the page, tapping his pen against it, but he knows Jace is right.  Jace has a horrible habit of always being right about stuff like this.  It’s part of what makes him a good cop, and an intolerable person.

“Maybe not,” he still objects, but it just makes Jace roll his eyes.

“Oh, right, maybe the autopsy results will just _magically_ rewrite themselves if you stare hard enough.  I’ve totally heard of that happening, Alec.  Just keep concentrating!”

Alec has spent enough years with his brother that he can throw a pen at Jace’s head without looking away from the file.  Jace lets out a little sharp _ow_ as it lands right on his temple, and throws it back, but Alec dodges it.

“Look, all the pieces are here, okay, they have to fit together somehow,” he insists, scooping the pen up off the floor and going back to tapping it against the edge of the file.  “We just need to figure it out.”

Alec is stubborn enough that he can almost make himself believe that, but not quite.  It’s usually easier to convince Jace once he’s convinced himself, so he’s not really holding out much hope this time.

“We might be good, but we’re not magical,” Jace says.  He rocks back on the rickety chair he’s managed to find; they’re in the stuffy old evidence locker, and Alec’s just sat on the floor, leaning back against the shelves of dusty boxes.  He would complain, except he’s pretty sure Jace is gonna go crashing through that chair at any moment, and that’s gonna be funny to watch.  Alec’s about to say something to that effect, but Jace suddenly adds, “Maybe you should go down to the basement and ask your new bestie.”

Okay, so that gets Alec to take his eyes off the folder.  He gulps, and sees that Jace is grinning, that stupid shit-eating grin that makes him somehow look so much like Izzy, never mind that they’re not biologically related at all.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  Alec is painfully aware of how unconvincing he sounds.  

“Oh, I don’t know, our lovely sister told me otherwise.”  Jace’s grin is getting even wider, and Alec kind of wants to melt into the floor.  “She said you’ve been _flirting._ ”

“I’ve been getting flirted _with,”_ Alec grumbles, without really meaning to.  He wishes he could take the words back a moment later, but there’s no denying that they’re true.

“You’re not interested?” Jace asks, eyebrows raising.  That’s not the problem.  That’s the opposite of the problem.  The problem is Alec simply and categorically cannot talk to Magnus without sounding like an idiot.  They’ve had one more encounter since the morgue, in the newly-fixed elevator yesterday, and he thinks he did a _little_ better.  He managed not to stutter or talk about murder, at least.  But it was a two minute conversation.  He doesn’t think that counts.

“It’s not that,” he says -- _wrong_ thing to say, the grin is back on Jace’s stupid face, and Alec groans.  “No, I don’t mean -- I only met him a week ago.  We’ve barely even spoken.”

“Pssh,” says Jace, waving a dismissive hand.  He gets off his chair and goes back to rooting through the evidence box they came in here for, but unfortunately that doesn’t affect his ability to talk in the slightest.  “As if that matters.  I asked Clary out the first time I met her, and look how happy we are now!”

“She turned you down the first time you met her,” Alec points out.  She’d kept on turning him down for a month and a half before Jace had figured out she’d heard that rumour about him and the antlers in Times Square.  It had taken three separate people confirming he wasn’t insane before she’d agreed to dinner.

“You’re too boring to have any naughty rumours about you,” Jace points out.  Alec would be annoyed, but it’s true.  Izzy once tried to start a rumour he wore colourful underwear and nobody would even believe that.  “I met him when I went down to see an autopsy yesterday.  He seems -- well, pretty sparkly, but if that’s your type --”

“It’s _not,”_ Alec says.  Jace is teasing, obvious in his wide grin and sparkling eyes as he rearranges folders inside the evidence box, but Alec still can’t help wanting to shut the conversation down.  

“Then what is?” Jace asks.  “Your type, I mean.”

“You ask me that way too often.”

“Yeah, because you’re my _brother_ and I’ve never even met a single person you’ve dated.  The closest I’ve come is when you made out with that hockey player at that frat party in college and I happened to walk around the corner.  And you never even talked to him again.”

Alec had actually hooked up with Riggs on and off for a month after that party, but there’s no need to mention that to Jace.

It’s not that he means to shut Jace out of his personal life, not really.  It’s just that it’s always been kind of a touchy subject for him, because of the traditional way they were raised, the shames and shackles that he still hasn’t managed to rid himself of the same way all his siblings seem to have.  Izzy’s known since they were teenagers, but she was safe to tell because she'd admitted to him that she wasn't completely straight either.  He didn’t even come out to Jace until he was twenty one.  Now he’s nearly twenty eight, and sure, he doesn’t hide from his friends or people at the precinct, but he still isn’t out to his parents.  He’s not sure if he ever will be.  They’ll probably disown him.

Plus, there’s the fact that -- okay, one night stands at bars, a few blind dates, attempts at relationships that last more than a month, whatever, but he’s never _really_ had much of a personal life to share.

“Look,” Alec says, trying to find words.  He’s completely given up on their work now, and abandons the autopsy report on the floor next to him so he can knot his fingers together on his knees.  “It’s not -- I’m not --”  He pauses, but Jace doesn’t say anything else, so Alec finally gives in.  “Okay, Magnus seems nice.  And he’s hot.  But I’m too busy to date, and he’s barely been flirting anyway, I think he’s kind of like that with everyone.  So I’m definitely not gonna push anything.  Will you drop it now?”

Even in the dim light of the evidence lockup, Alec can see Jace roll his eyes.

“I’ll drop it when you’re in a disgustingly happy relationship and getting laid on the regular,” he says, but when Alec throws the pen at him again, he finally shuts up.

\-----

Alec actually has a perfectly legitimate reason to go down to the forensics lab.  Their murder case has hit a block, but new DNA evidence has just turned up on a string of burglaries that they've been lost on for months, so of course he wants to pick up the results as soon as possible -- it could break the case.  Of course, none of this stops Jace from laughing at him when he says where he’s going.

“He might not even be there,” Alec grumbles.  “It’s not like he’s the only person in that department.”

Their precinct is pretty small, so Magnus is the only forensic analyst, true, but he has a few lab techs and someone who works the weekends.  And besides, Alec is actually hoping he won’t see Magnus at all, since he’s been so incredibly awkward the last few times they’ve met.  It’s embarrassing.  Jace’s logic is flawed.

Jace ignores it when Alec comments on this, and shouts, “Use protection!” at Alec’s back as he gets into the elevator.  Half the precinct turns to look at them.

Sometimes Alec wants to ask his parents what the hell they were thinking when they adopted Jace.

\-----

When he gets down to the basement he dodges Izzy in the morgue and makes his way straight to the lab. Alec must have been down there a hundred times, but not since Magnus took over, and he immediately notices the changes.  It’s a pretty small room and for the most part things are still sterile white, like you’d expect, but there’s also more colour splashed around than there ever has been before; a strange painting on one wall, a shimmering curtain over the door, silky looking pink cushion on the swivel chair.  The plastic skeleton in the corner is even wearing a kimono.  

“Wow,” Alec murmurs, unable to help himself.  Suddenly there’s a clatter and Magnus’s head pops up from behind the desk.  His face lights up when he sees Alec, and he springs to standing.

“You,” he begins, rounding the desk and approaching Alec, one finger accusingly outstretched, “Didn’t tell me your full name is Alexander.”

He sounds positively delighted, and the way he says _Alexander_ is more like a purr.  Alec gulps.

“Everyone calls me Alec.  How’d you know?”  He tries not to focus on how close Magnus is stood or the way his glittery eyeliner makes it almost impossible not to look into his eyes.  

“A true gentleman doesn’t reveal his secrets,”  Magnus says, and Alec snorts.

“So, I’m guessing my sister?”

Magnus pouts.  This is the opposite of what Alec wants, because his lips are already far too tempting but when the bottom one pushes out like that, all full and rosy red and damp from Magnus’s tongue as he talked, Alec feels like he’s going a little bit insane.

“Fine, ruin my fun.  Me and Isabelle have a lot of time to chat, trapped down here all by ourselves.”

“And you chat about _me?”_ Alec can’t help sounding incredulous.  He knows Magnus has been flirting a little, and Izzy is far more invested in his love life than is healthy, but he can still think of a thousand better topics for them to discuss.  It’s hardly like he’s very interesting.  They’d probably have better conversations about the Third Reich.

“Well, not exclusively, but a your sister is a lovely font of knowledge.  Interesting, she’s happened to mention a few times that you’re single.  Her exact words were _hopelessly so,_ but I hardly believe that.  You’re too pretty to be hopeless.”

Alec almost groans out loud.  Of course his sister is talking about him, of course she’s broadcasting how long it’s been since he had a date.  And he’s going to skate right over the fact that Magnus just called him _pretty_ because if he thinks about it, he’s gonna lose the ability to talk again.

“Please ignore anything embarrassing she’s said,” he begs.  “I, um, just came down for the DNA results from the Rodriguez house.”

A topic change is definitely the best course of action here, before he has to start talking about his love life and thoroughly embarrassing himself.  Magnus raises an eyebrow for a moment, but then turns around and opens one of the drawers on the desk, rooting around inside.  He’s not wearing a lab coat, and his dark red pants show off his ass _far_ too well.  Alec quickly diverts his eyes to the ceiling.

“Ah, here it is!” Alec judges it safe to look back, only to find Magnus straightened up and smirking at him.  Magnus approaches him again, and stands just a little too close as he hands Alec a piece of paper, his sparkling fingertips brushing the inside of Alec’s wrist as he passes it over.  “The DNA was in the system.  I’m sure you’ll be able to find some dirt on this guy, if he’s the one who did it.”

“I --” says Alec, then stops, changes track, “Uh, thanks.”

“Just doing my job,” Magnus chirps.  Right.  Only then he adds, “Though I’m particularly happy to do it for you.”

“Why?” The words bubble out before Alec can stop them, hasty and more than a little confused.  “I mean, we hardly know each other.”

There’s a moment of pause.  Alec wonders if he’s said something wrong; Magnus’s big soulful eyes are staring at him intently, searching his face, and he’s still stood too close.  It’s making it hard to breathe.

“I was born in Indonesia,” Magnus says, apropos of nothing.  Alec frowns but before he can say anything, Magnus continues,  “I was born in Indonesia, my roommate is a cat named Chairman Meow, and I was expelled from my first high school.  There, now you know three things about me.”

Alec blinks.  “You named your cat _Chairman Meow_?”

“And the fact that you chose to focus on that is just one of the many reasons I am intrigued by you, Alexander,” Magnus says.  “Now, take your DNA results, go solve your grizzly crime.”

“It wasn’t really grizzly,” Alec says.  “Just expensive.”

“Even worse.” Magnus looks solemn for a moment, but there’s still a playful sparkle in his eyes.  Alec can’t help but smile.

“Okay, bye.  Uh -- see you soon,” says Alec.  It’s maybe a little keen but in a precinct as small as this, chances are they will -- Alec realises he hasn’t actually managed to go a day without at least catching sight of him since Magnus started working here.  Not that he’s complaining.  Except for that time it made him spill coffee everywhere.

Magnus gives a cheery wave, and Alec finally, slightly reluctantly, backs out of the lab.  On his way to the basement door he sees Izzy, who raises a smug eyebrow when she realises where he’s just emerged from.

“Stop gossiping about me with Magnus,” he tells her.

Izzy just laughs.  

“Never,” she says, and despite his best efforts, Alec can’t even manage to be annoyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i will love you if you leave a comment letting me know if you liked the chap, and lemme know which characters you'd like to see more of! i've pretty much only written alec interacting with magnus, izzy and jace at this stage, so i'm gonna try and shake it up a bit soon <3
> 
> come talk to me on [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took a few days! i got a kind of weird comment on the last chap which discouraged me a bit and i found it super hard to back into this story's groove after that, which is why this is a couple of days later than i thought it would be. but i'm back feeling inspired for this story again, so i really hope you guys enjoy this chap!

Probably Alec’s least favourite part of his job is court.

He does his best, sure, of course; it’s happened before that people he’s convicted have gotten off despite plentiful evidence and it’s always horrible, so he certainly never wants his own testimony to help get a case dropped.  But he can’t help that he’s not very good at talking.  He gets uncomfortable sat up next to the judge, staring down at the crowd of people in the benches and the lawyer interrogating him.  Sometimes he fumbles over the questions they ask him, because he’s never been very good at expressing himself in a way anyone else will understand.  Jace also claims that most juries find him mildly terrifying -- Alec’s reaction to nervousness is an evil expression, apparently.  He once tried to smile on the stand but apparently that was even scarier, so he’s resigned himself to it now.

He gets through it, though.  The Matheson murder was a particularly grizzly case he and Jace had solved, and Alec thinks they’ve got plentiful evidence against the woman who did it, so he’s not letting himself stress over it.  He only has to testify for fifteen minutes, Jace for ten, but they sit through the rest of the day of trial just in case.  It’s not concluded by the end; the trial will have to continue tomorrow, though Alec doesn’t think he and Jace will have to be there for it.

As soon as they get out of the courtroom Alec sheds his tie.  Another thing he hates about court; formalwear.  Alec has an ability to make any outfit look messy.  He thinks it might be his hair.  Usually he doesn’t dress smart for work, most of them don’t, but court is something different and he has to dig out his funeral suit every time.  It’s depressing.  Not that a lot of police work isn’t.

Jace lingers for a moment to talk to someone, but as soon as he catches up to Alec in the lobby, he asks, “Ready to go?”

He’s looking altogether far too casual for someone who just spent most of their morning recapping the details of a gruesome crime.  He’s already got his tie off, too.

“Um,” says Alec, and checks his phone.  There’s a new message.  “I’m gonna grab coffee with Maia, while we’re here.  You can come along if you want.”

Jace snorts.  “Your scary friend?  Think I’ll pass.  I prefer to spend my time in the company of people who don't want to beat me up.”

“Since when?” Alec goads, but it’s not an altogether bad point.  Maia has never got along with Jace, although by this point, she mostly threatens him for the fun of seeing him get all riled up.  Jace just doesn’t know that.

Between Jace and Izzy and all the people they both bring into his life, Alec considers himself pretty lucky to actually have a lot of friends, but Maia is one of the few friends who is really _his._ Just his.  He’s known her since they were twelve and in the same kendo club, and they went to the same college too, took a few of the same classes like _Martial Arts in American History just for fun_ ; while it often seems from the outside like they don't actually have anything in common, their personalities are similar enough that they get on really well.

Of course, he doesn’t spend as much time with her as he used to -- since he got promoted to detective he’s been working so much that it’s become easier to go to Jace and Izzy as his friends by default, since they’re always in the same building as him.  And Maia was busy with college, becoming a kickass marine biologist and travelling around for several different jobs, because she's never been great at staying in one place.  It was only last year that she got this really cool position consulting with a law firm who are lobbying for some kind of new ocean preservation law that Alec doesn't understand, which has her spending a lot of time at the courthouse; for the first time in ages, they have a reason to regularly be in the same place, so he figures he should take advantage of it.

So Alec sends Jace off and heads to the coffee shop off the edge of the courthouse.  He orders a black coffee and sits down in the corner, his long legs folding into the low chair awkwardly, knees knocking against the table.  Maia turns up barely three minutes later, striding in and immediately.

“Hey,” he greets, and she gives him one of her toothy grins that he can't help but smile back at.

She orders a tea and begins by telling him about her asshole boss at the law firm, a woman who is apparently pure evil in a pencil skirt; Maia sounds kind of torn between admiring her and wanting to beat her up.  Alec sometimes wonders if Maia really has the constitution to work with lawyers.  Then she forces him to tell her about all the aspects of his life which could have changed in the two weeks since they last met up -- Alec obediently tells her about a couple of new cases, vaguely of course but his work is mostly all he has to talk about, and the really good pizza he had last weekend.

“Okay,” she says, when he’s gotten all that out.  She takes a sip of her tea, grins wider, and says, “Now tell me about your love life.”

Alec rolls his eyes to the ceiling and silently begs for strength.  The coffee shop is bustling and pretty noisy and he wonders if he could pretend to not have heard her.  What the hell is it with everyone he knows and being obsessed with him dating?  Sure, he’s been single for a long time, but does that really have anything to do with anyone?

“Tell me about _yours,”_ he retorts, and takes a punctuated gulp of coffee.

“I'm taking an intentional break from having a love life.  Back to you.”

The day before, Izzy had brought Magnus to get lunch with them at the taco truck she likes so much.  The three of them had sat on a bench in the street all bundled up in their winter coats, and Magnus’s winter coat had involved a lot of shimmering thread and silk patches, and Magnus had told animated stories about the apparently raucous antics at the last forensic conference he’d gone to.  He spoke amazingly, so full of life and humour, and had looked pleased every time Alec laughed.  Alec and Izzy made big messes of themselves like they always do when they eat those tacos but somehow Magnus did it gracefully and didn’t spill anything once.  He actually looked hot eating _tacos._ Alec had wondered, in the moment, if maybe he was a little bit magic.  When they went back inside Magnus had tugged on the ends of Alec’s green scarf and said _it brings out your rather gorgeous eyes_ and Alec still felt flushed an hour later when he was interrogating a gang member.

Alec mulls all that over, and says to Maia, “Not much to tell.”

She looks at his expression and the flush on his cheeks and responds, “Bullshit.”

\-----

Okay, so maybe it’s bullshit.  Maybe it isn’t.  Is it too soon to tell?  It’s been, now, two weeks since Magnus started work.  The tacos are the only time Alec’s seen him outside of it, and that had barely counted -- they’d been on a bench directly facing the precinct, and his sister had been there.  They’ve had three, four conversations in the morgue?  A few brief encounters at the elevator or coffee machine?  That and the fact that Magnus is stunningly pretty are not enough to base a crush on.  Right?

Alec stands barefoot in his empty kitchen and focuses on chopping peppers.  He’s accidentally ended up inviting half his friends for dinner, mostly thanks to Izzy, but he finds cooking therapeutic so he doesn’t mind.  There’s something about focusing on his hands that just brings him back to earth, so he doesn’t fill up with confusing thoughts as he carefully chops cilantro or counts figs into a bowl, one at a time.

It’s when the food’s in the oven that he has too much time to think.  

He tries to think about the last time he had a crush.  It’s harder than he expected.  It’s been about four months since he got laid, but that was a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend kind of a blind date, and the guy had been completely obnoxious.  Alec had drunk two beers, one more than usual, and felt a little morose, and the guy had been hot if not nice, so they’d fucked and after that neither of them had called.  To find any actual feelings beyond fleeting attraction, he has to go back a lot further.  Definitely before he was a detective, because though he’s always been a bit of a workaholic it’s become a lot worse since then.  He remembers being twenty five and there was a guy, Jack, for two months.  He was an illustrator, and they’d met in a bar, and he was nice.  Alec thinks he’d had a crush on Jack.  It had never turned into anything more than that, though, two months of dating and then a mutual kind of fizzle-out ending, and he hadn’t even felt the need to eat ice cream when they broke it off.  Izzy claims that’s a sign that he was never really emotionally invested.

Not that he’s emotionally invested in Magnus.  Not yet, at least.  But -- could he be, one day?  The strange flitterings in Alec’s stomach are so unlike anything he’s felt for anyone else, even the few guys he’s really liked.  Is that a sign of something?

The oven timer goes off.   _Stop thinking about him,_ Alec reprimands himself.   _He’s probably not half as interested as you are, anyway._

\-----

So, the dinner thing.  Alec had mentioned casually to Izzy that he’d wanted to try a new Moroccan tagine recipe, and she’d said, _I’ll come to dinner tonight._ Which had been fine.  And then she’d invited Clary who is apparently her bestie these days, which, okay, fine, Alec doesn’t like Clary all that much but he doesn’t dislike her either, but of course if Clary is coming then Jace is coming, and also if Clary is coming, Simon is coming.  Which is new.

Simon is Clary’s roommate and lifelong best friend, apparently.  Alec’s known him for quite a few months, the same length of time he’s known Clary.  He thinks Simon’s okay.  They maybe don’t have much in common but Simon seems genuinely nice.  It’s just that, in an awkward turn of events, Simon and Maia had dated for a while and then broken up on odd terms, so now whenever Simon comes somewhere Alec can’t invite Maia.  And he’s known Maia a hell of a lot longer than Simon, so he has rather obvious loyalties.  Simon always seems to try a little too hard around him and Alec thinks it’s probably because of that.

“Hey, bro,” Simon says when he arrives, at Clary’s shoulder with a wide smile on his face.  “Wow, it smells great in here.”

“Delicious,” Clary agrees.  Jace is at her other shoulder, pulling a face, and he says nothing.  Alec rolls his eyes and lets them all into the apartment.

“Izzy’s setting the table,” he tells them, and ushers them all towards the living room.  There’s a tiny two-seat table in his kitchen but when everyone comes around like this they just use the coffee table, which is low but big enough for everyone to sit on the floor and eat at.  His apartment is on the small side, but he’s had it since his officer days, back when it had been the biggest thing he could afford in Brooklyn, and he doesn’t want to move.  He has all his stuff set up, knows this building, knows his neighbours will leave him alone, knows how to get to work and to his two favourite coffee shops and one favourite gym with his eyes closed.  The stability is comforting.

He serves up dinner and for a while everything is fine.  The food turned out pretty good, he thinks, and everyone else agrees, although Clary has this thing about spice that he will never understand so her eyes are watering a bit as she eats.  Conversation flows readily, as it always does in a group full of exuberant personalities, and Alec’s the quietest but that’s how it always is.  He’s not exactly shy, he just has less to say, and he enjoys listening to the fights and banter and bizarre stories while he eats.  It’s a good night.

Until about halfway through, when unwanted focus suddenly turns to him.  There’s a lull in the conversation after Izzy finishes recounting a recent blind date she’d gone on, and after that it is, of course, all Simon’s fault.

“So, Alec, I hear _you’ve_ got a new boo?” Simon kind-of-asks-but-mostly-just-states.  He’s grinning, and he looks so sweet and genuinely happy that for a moment Alec doesn’t quite realise what he’s just said.  Only then he _does_ realise, and --

“Izzy,” he groans, barely resisting the impulse to throw his fork at her.

“I didn’t say a word,” Izzy says, quickly throwing her hands up in the air.  Alec doesn’t believe her but before he can say that, Clary interjects.

“ _I_ told him.  Come on, Alec, I saw you guys by the coffee cart the other day.  You were both making serious heart eyes, it wasn’t subtle, like, at _all.”_

“We’re not dating,” Alec insists, not even letting himself wonder how obvious he must have been if Clary had noticed his crush from one interaction without him even seeing her there.  “I’ve barely known him two weeks.  And I think there’s a limit to how many times I can have this conversation in a day, so I’m stopping this right here.  Everyone shut up and eat your tagine.”

“Touch-y,” Izzy singsongs under her breath, and then, “Alexander doth protest too much.”

Clary tries and fails to stifle her giggle, and Jace just laughs out loud, and Simon looks apologetic for a moment but then he starts laughing too.

Alec puts his head in his hand and groans.  He doesn’t want to talk about his love life.  Why is that so difficult for everyone to grasp?

\-----

The next day Izzy texts Alec to come eat lunch in the basement with her, and when he gets down there, she’s nowhere to be found.  Someone who can be found, of course, is Magnus, who is stood in the break room with an amused look on his face when Alec walks in.

“Isabelle will be back in a minute,” Magnus tells him.  “She didn’t tell me where she was going.  I believe she thinks she’s doing some subtle matchmaking.”

Alec’s torn between a blush and an eyeroll, ends up doing a little of both.  He leans against the doorframe but the room’s small enough that he and Magnus are still stood close.  Alec wonders if he’ll ever stop being dazzled by Magnus’s looks -- he’s not even wearing much glitter, today, just around his eyes and on his fingernails, but somehow it still seems like all of him is shining.

“Sorry about her,” he says.  It's far from the first time he’s apologised for his sister’s meddling and he’s sure it’ll be far from the last.  He loves her, and he knows she’d never push anything if it truly made him uncomfortable, but the fact remains that she’s far too invested in his life.  To be fair, he’s pretty invested in hers as well, he just takes a calmer approach to it.

“No need to apologise." Magnus is leaning against the counter like his posture is just effortless, eyeing Alec up and down, and Alec is so struck by how graceful he looks that he almost fucking misses it when Magnus says, “In fact, I think she’s right.  You should come on a date with me.”

For a moment, silence.  Alec blinks.  He blinks again.  No way he heard that right.  He stares at Magnus, waiting for a correction or for some kind of sense to come of it, but Magnus is just looking right back at him, one eyebrow raised and a hint of a confident smile.  Alec gulps.

“We hardly even know each other,” he says, which is not an answer but he’s not sure what his answer should even be.  (Yes, it should be yes, he knows already that he’s going to say yes if Magnus is actually serious about this, of _course_ he is.)

“Well, that’s the point of a date, darling.  You get to know each other.  Talk about your likes, dislikes, compare hobbies and childhoods, that kind of thing.  You do know how dates work, yes?”

“I know, I just --”

“Alexander,” Magnus says, and suddenly his tone is different, kind and a little less sure.  “If it’s really a no, just say the word, and I’ll back off with the majority of my dignity intact, I promise.”

“It’s not a no, it’s just -- I don’t get why you’d --” Alec can’t even finish the sentence, feeling too awkward about it.  He is constantly stuck in this land of torn self esteem, fighting against the fact that he never feels good enough, unable to figure out from day to day whether it’s because of the pressure his family have always put on him and the way he grew up or whether he really genuinely is just a mess.  But most of the time he figures even having that battle in his head makes him a mess.

“Why I’d ask you out?”  Magnus fills in.  He must see some confirmation in Alec’s expression, because his own face suddenly turns a little disbelieving and unhappy.  “Listen, Alec, I’ll be honest.  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt truly interested in somebody the way I seem to be in you.  You’re a gorgeous, smart detective, and you’re not arrogant at all.  You’re -- different, to most people I’ve known.  That's all it is so far, but I’d like the chance to find out more.”  Alec knows his cheeks are bright red but he can’t bring himself to duck his head or look away from Magnus’s eyes at all.  Magnus seems so open, so candid, it’s almost painfully beautiful to watch in his face.  “So.  Are you going to give me your number so I can invite you out for coffee?”

“Yeah,” Alec says, because there’s no other answer he could possibly give when Magnus is looking at him like that.  “Yeah, okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave a comment and let me know what you thought! 
> 
> or you can come talk to me on [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)!


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, story time. last saturday a record-breakingly hungover maia got herself a cup of coffee and sat down at her laptop to watch a bit of netflix. and then proceeded to spill the coffee all over the laptop with her dumb shaky hungover hands, shorting out the keyboard and ruining her own life. she then had to order a new separate keyboard, which actually defeats the whole point of a laptop anyway since it ruins the whole portable aspect, and now she hasn't been able to work on A) this fic or B) imminently due uni assignments
> 
> so that's my excuse for why this chapter took so damn long, i'm sorry! this is actually just a short one because i wanted to get something out, a longer and more eventful chap will be up either tomorrow or this weekend. i promise there won't usually be such a gap between updates! thanks for sticking with me guys

[ Nov.08 -- 11:43 -- From: Unknown Number ]

_Good morning, pretty boy._

[ Nov.08 -- 11:45 -- To: Unknown Number ]

_who is this?_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:46 -- To: Unknown Number ]

_magnus?_

 [ Nov.08 -- 11:48 -- From: Unknown Number ]

_I’m insulted that you even had to guess, Alexander! Who else is calling you pretty? Do I need to challenge them to a duel for your hand?_

**[ Contact Saved: magnus bane ]**

[ Nov.08 -- 11:49 -- To: magnus bane ]

_no, there’s no one_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:50 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i just didn’t have your number yet_

[ Nov.08 -- 11: 50 -- To: magnus bane ]

_have you only just woken up?_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:51 -- From: magnus bane ]

_It’s a Saturday, of course I have! And now I am drinking a delightful cup of coffee in my bed.  I suppose you’ve been up since eight?_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:51 -- To: magnus bane ]

_seven_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:52 -- From: magnus bane ]

_That is truly tragic.  We need to work on your understanding of weekends.  I suppose I could always give you some more incentives to stay in bed ;) ;)_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:53 -- To: magnus bane ]

_you’re shameless.  how do you even come up with these lines_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:53 -- From: magnus bane ]

_A great natural proclivity for suggestiveness, Alexander. I must say you rather took that one in stride.  I was hoping I would be able to get you flustered over text._

[ Nov.08 -- 11: 55 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i must be getting used to you_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:56 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Well, I’m certainly not going to complain about that._

[ Nov.08 -- 11:57 -- From: magnus bane ]

_What are you doing on this fine day?_

[ Nov.08 -- 11:59 -- To: magnus bane ]

_im at the precinct. overtime. i’m working tomorrow too.  ive already been here for three hours while you were still asleep :P_

[ Nov.08 -- 12:01 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Gosh, the boy really is a workaholic._

[ Nov.08 -- 12:02 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i just like my job_

[ Nov.08 -- 12:03 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Well I suppose I can’t fault you for that.  I should let you get back to protecting the citizens of New York from terrible crimes, you dashing hero.  I just wanted to say good morning!_

[ Nov.08 -- 12:04 -- To: magnus bane ]

_it’s afternoon now_

[ Nov.08 -- 12:05 -- To: magnus bane ]

_good afternoon, magnus_

\-----

That evening, when Alec is alone in his apartment with his hands in a bowl of breadcrumbs, Magnus texts him again.

[ Nov.08 -- 19:42 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Let me guess - you’re still at the precinct?_

Alec feels ridiculous, the way his face automatically twitches into the beginnings of a giddy smile as soon as he sees Magnus’s name pop up on his phone.  His face is too warm all of a sudden, and in his own mind he blames it on the heat of the oven, even though that’s never bothered him before.  He recognises that this is how it feels to have a crush.  He just feels a little silly for actually having one.

Alec pulls his hands out of the breadcrumbs and hastily wipes them on a kitchen towel before he grabs up his phone.

[ Nov.08 -- 19:43 -- To: magnus bane ]

_im not THAT bad. im home, making dinner_

[ Nov.08 -- 19:44 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Good boy. What are you having?_

[ Nov.08 -- 19:44 -- To: magnus bane ]

_garlic chicken parmesan_

It’s one of those dishes that Alec has made so many times he could do it with his eyes shut.  He could do it with his eyes removed _,_ and possibly his hands removed too.  He doesn’t even consult a recipe for it anymore, doesn’t measure out the ingredients properly, because he can eyeball the right amount of dried basil or grated parmesan down to the nearest gram.

[ Nov.08 -- 19:45 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Ooh, sounds complicated!_

[ Nov.08 -- 19:45 -- To: magnus bane ]

_it’s really not.  i’ve been cooking this since i was a kid.  what are you having tonight?_

[ Nov.08 -- 19:48 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Alexander, don’t tell me you’re a good cook as well as everything else.  You’re getting me all hot and bothered! I am partaking in some delicious Thai takeout._

[ Nov.08 -- 19:49 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i like cooking. my mom taught me.  you’re just having takeout?_

[ Nov.08 -- 19:51 -- From: magnus bane ]

_I unfortunately possess no talent in the culinary arts, so takeout is a regular for me.  You have to promise to cook for me some time, darling._

And that’s when Alec’s brain shorts out.  Because _sometime_ suggests multiple opportunities may arise for that to happen.  Like Magnus is counting on them having more than one date.  Alec suddenly feels like his face is gonna catch on fire, and he presses his slightly giddy lips together to stop a full grin from breaking out.

[ Nov.08 -- 19:53 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i promise_

He doesn’t say anything else, and sticks his hands back in the breadcrumbs.  He feels too crush-dizzy to talk anymore.

\-----

[ Nov.09 -- 00:12 -- From: magnus bane ]

_What time do you start work today?_

[ Nov.09 -- 00:14 -- To: magnus bane ]

_nine am. why?_

[ Nov.09 -- 00:18 -- To: magnus bane ]

_goodnight magnus_

[ Nov.09 -- 00:19 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Goodnight, Alexander._

\-----

The next morning, Alec walks into the precinct at nine oh one, and there’s a paper Starbucks cup on his desk.  

He glances around, confused, but nobody else in the precinct has one and he can’t think why the hell it would be there.  He reaches out to pick it up, but as soon as he touches it he draws his hand back, letting out a short hiss of breath.  Way too hot.  It can only have been here for a minute.

Then he notices the post-it on his computer screen.

_A placeholder, until we can go for coffee in person.  I hazarded a guess that you take it as black as your charmingly tragic wardrobe.  M._

Alec does take his coffee black.

His cheeks flush, and he sits down at his desk, stares at the coffee.  It looks good.

He keeps staring down at it for a few long minutes, ignoring the bustling of the precinct around him, barely responding when Jace turns up and greets him with a thump on the shoulder before heading off to get some files from the evidence locker.  When the coffee’s finally cooled down enough, Alec picks it up between tentative fingers and takes a sip.

Then he pulls out his phone.

[ Nov.09 -- 09:06 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i thought you slept in on the weekends?_

[ Nov.09 -- 09:08 -- From: magnus bane ]

_I set an alarm for you, darling._

[ Nov.09 -- 09:08 -- To: magnus bane ]

_it tastes good._

[ Nov.09 -- 09:08 -- To: magnus bane ]

_you’re really nice_

[ Nov.09 -- 09:10 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Only to you, Alexander._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this was short but hopefully sweet enough to make up for it! lemme know what you thought xxx
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the slight delay again guys -- for those who don't follow me on tumblr and hear me complaining there, this is my assignment week at uni, which means i have six separate 2000 word assignments due in between now on friday. i'm kind of dying. but i'm trying to get in writing this fic whenever i can so hopefully the next update will be before the end of the week!
> 
> anyway, people have been asking for magnus POV, so look out for the latter half of this chapter! and i hope you guys enjoy!

Alec stares into his wardrobe, and the abyss stares back into him.

It's ridiculous, how much trouble he's having all of a sudden.  He’s never really thought about it before, no matter how many times Izzy has complained about the way he dresses, but he really does have an entire wardrobe full of black jeans, dark t-shirts for home, dark button-downs for work, and his one leather jacket.  His funeral-or-court suit hangs at the back behind the rest of it.  There are a few baggy black sweaters as well, shoved at the back.

That’s it.  The most colourful thing in his wardrobe is a dark purple button-down that Izzy had bought for his last birthday, and he’s only worn it twice.  

He suddenly feels a little pathetic.

It’s not like he’s dressing _for_ Magnus, but it’s now been almost three weeks since they met and every single time they've seen each other Magnus has had some new and amazing outfit on.  He’s always sparkling and silky and colourful while still almost toeing the line of workplace-appropriate, and Alec in his black jeans and shirts every single day just feels kind of -- dull.  He’s already having a hard enough time understanding why Magnus wants to date him.

Not that they’ve gone on a date yet.  But they’ve been texting nearly constantly for the last three days, and Alec’s crush is only getting more hopelessly strong as time goes by.  Magnus is so witty, flirtatious and over the top but also thoughtful when he wants to be.  Talking to him is both exciting and comforting at the same time, and Alec’s never really felt like that before.

Alec rubs a hand through his messy hair and sighs.  His wardrobe isn’t getting any more interesting the longer he looks at it and he can’t stand there in only jeans and boots for the rest of his life.

He reaches for the purple button-down.  It’s a little rumpled, but it’s also one inch closer to something he could picture Magnus finding interesting.  It'll have to do, even if Izzy will never let him hear the end of it.

\-----

When he gets to work, Jace is sat at Alec's desk.  Jace is never there before Alec, with the exception of the few times he has actually forgotten to go home overnight and been asleep in the break room when Alec turns up the next day.

“Are you feeling okay?” Alec asks suspiciously, shrugging his bag off his shoulder and setting it on the floor next to Jace’s feet.  “Are you dying?  Do you have some kind of disease that causes terminal punctuality?”

“No, it causes terminal punch-you-ality,” Jace says, and punches Alec in the arm.  The attempted pun is far more painful.  Alec raises an eyebrow, and Jace huffs.  “I rode in with Clary this morning, she’s annoyingly on time.”

“Wow, maybe she’ll be a good influence on you yet,” Alec mutters, shoving Jace out of his chair so he can sit in it to check his email.  Jace stands up easily enough but he just stays leaned against the edge of Alec’s desk while Alec logs onto his computer.  
  
“Speaking of good influences,” Jace says, “Are you wearing _colour_ today _?_ ”

His hand shoots out and tugs down the zipper of Alec’s jacket before Alec can do anything to stop it, revealing the so-debated purple shirt.

“What, I - hey!” he calls out, but it’s not enough to stop Jace, of course.  “Hey -- alright, fine, I wear colours sometimes.  And it’s dark.”

“It’s still purple,” Jace says, grinning far too smugly for Alec’s liking.  “You wear dark blue or dark green at the most.  So using my incredible detective skills I’m coming to the conclusion that you’re wearing this for your colourful, sparkly new _boyfriend.”_

He could not possibly sound more like a five year old on the school playground.  Alec tries to silence him with a glare but that’s never really worked on Jace, who just bursts out laughing.

“Would you leave it?  He’s not my boyfriend.  We haven’t even gone on one date yet.”

“ _Yet_?”  Jace’s eyes have lit up, and -- oh, right.  Alec hasn’t actually mentioned to anyone yet that Magnus asked him out.  Especially not Jace and Izzy, because their obsession with his love life is bad enough when they don’t even think he has one. He can't really lie to his siblings, or at least he doesn't like to, but it's only been a few days and withholding information is different than actually lying, right?  That's what he's been telling himself while not wanting to deal with them.

“I --” says Alec, ready to deny everything in the face of overwhelming evidence just like Maia would tell him to, but thankfully he’s saved at just that moment by Sergeant Hodge striding by.

“Briefing room,” Hodge says as he passes them, and Alec quickly scrambles out of his chair to follow.

“This isn’t over,” Jace warns him happily, but Alec just catches up with Detective Pandey and takes a seat beside him in the briefing room.

Alec doesn’t let himself be distracted during the briefings, no matter how much his mind keeps straying to Magnus or how much he can feel Jace’s smug eyes burning into his back the whole time.  He pays attention to all the cases he’s not working because you never know when one of them might end up being relevant, and because it’s respectful to his colleagues, and it’s just what you’re supposed to do.  When Hodge gets up at the end to assign open cases, Alec pays attention to that too.

“Lightwood and Wayland,” is the first pair of names Hodge calls, so it’s just as well.  Alec sits up a little straighter.  “Uniforms have picked up a homicide on forty third street, I want you on it.”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Alec says immediately.  

“You got it,” Jace pipes up from behind him.  Alec knows he shouldn’t feel grateful for murders, but Jace has a one track mind and this probably means he’ll drop the shirt thing, so he can’t quite help it.

A few more cases are assigned, but when everyone goes to leave, Hodge pulls Alec and Jace back.  They wait in silence until everyone’s cleared the room, Branwell out last still grumbling about the boring robbery she’s been put on with Pandey.  Then Hodge fixes them both with a stare.

“I’ve noticed you two are stalled on a few cases recently,” he says, and Alec immediately knows this isn’t gonna be good.  “We’ve left you guys partnered for a long time against a lot of people’s better judgement because you’ve always provided results, but you know there's still controversy about your parents, so if your close relationship is starting to get in the way of your decision making as detectives --”

“No,” Jace says, crossing his arms as he cuts Hodge off.  “No, we’re fine, what are you even talking about?”

“We’ve just had a couple of runs of bad luck.  We’ll be fine on this case,” Alec says.  He tries not to sound defensive but he knows it’s probably coming across in his tone from the evaluating way Hodge looks at them both.

“Okay.  Make sure it stays that way, or the captain’s gonna be calling you in.  I’m just warning you, here.”

He leaves, and Jace and Alec look at each other.

“That’s gonna be a problem,” says Jace.

\-----

Thing is, they really do work well together, and they really have just been having bad luck.  Alec and Jace have been best friends since Jace was ten and came to live with them.  Things were a little weird between them when Alec was fifteen and developed an unfortunate crush, but it only lasted a few months before he went to high school and realised there was a whole world of other cute, less annoying guys out there to crush on, and Jace really was better as just a brother.  They’ve always been a good pair, a harmony of Jace’s recklessness and Alec’s talent for cleaning up messes.  It might not be the most stable relationship but they’re just as good as a crime fighting duo as they were at getting Mom not to ground them.

Getting separated would suck.  There are only four other detectives in their precinct, and Alec wouldn’t wanna work with any of them.  Pandey’s a suck-up to the captain, Brown and Kimura are just gross, and Branwell’s too much like Alec for them to make a good team at all.  So he has to stay with Jace.

“It’s fine,” Jace says, as they head over to their newest crime scene.  “All we’ve gotta do is score a home-run on this case and Hodge will forget all about those stupid robberies with no leads.  He loves us, you know that.”

Alec’s not actually sure Hodge does love them, and Jace is conveniently forgetting the double homicide they’ve also recently failed to solve, but he keeps both those points to himself.

“Whatever,” he says, as they duck under the police tape on the sidewalk.  “Let’s just focus on this case.”

Their victim is a woman, pretty and young and tragic, just left out on the sidewalk in plain view of everyone.  She doesn’t even look hurt at first, could almost be sleeping but for the awkward splay of her limbs and the blood seeping out around her.  Jace and Alec talk to the lab techs and the uniforms who responded first and the hotdog vendor who’d called it in to begin with when he’d come to set up his cart before sunrise that morning and found her there.  Nothing seems like a lead.

“Izzy’ll give us something with the autopsy,” Alec says, trying to sound more confident than he really is about that.  For some reason this case is giving him a bad feeling.  It must be Hodge’s threats from earlier.  “Let’s get the body back to her.”

\-----

Magnus is having a slow day.

Considering he’s practically running a one-man department, this is rare.  He doesn’t count the few lab techs or the weekend crew because they’re not there all the time, and anyway, he likes to make himself seem a little grander than he really is.  Not that he’s not plenty grand already.

He’d been requesting a transfer to somewhere Brooklyn for quite a while, but he specifically wanted to work at a lab internal to a police precinct so positions hadn’t been readily available.  Still, luck had finally prevailed and some old grouch had retired from this station, and now Magnus doesn't have to commute from his loft anymore.  The commute was the sole reason he’d wanted to transfer -- he’s lived in Brooklyn for years and he wouldn’t want to move anywhere else in New York, so working on the other side of Queens had been a pain.  Now that he’s here, though, he’s finding this place appealing for a lot more reasons than just proximity.

For one, it’s a lot smaller than his old precinct, so a lot of the time he has the lab to himself.  There are techs working for him but the lab is essentially his office; he can decorate it, rearrange it, boss people around when they’re in there.  And then there’s Isabelle in the morgue next door, who is absolutely charming and who Magnus is much better friends with already than he had been with any of the creepy pathologists in Queens.

And then there’s Alexander Lightwood.

Something jumps in Magnus’s throat just from thinking the name, and he absent-mindedly runs a finger across his lips.  They haven’t kissed, they haven’t even really done anything at all yet except flirt in a mostly one-sided way, and yet --

Magnus is nearly twenty nine years old and he already feels like a bitter old man sometimes.  He never used to be this way, he knows.  But it’s been years at this point since he embarked on anything more adventurous than a two-night stand.  Not since -- well, not since he had his heart broken.

He’s mostly mended by now, but something in him still feels cautious.  He’s shut himself off, he knows.  For some reason, though, when Alexander stutters and fumbles and jokes, looking down with those gorgeous hazel eyes, Magnus finds himself feeling things again.

It’s exciting.  Scary.  Probably long overdue.  It also feels new, and after how many times Magnus has been around the block that’s not something he ever really finds anymore.

Magnus fingers at his phone in his pocket, wondering if he should text Alexander.  Catarina had stayed the weekend and made fun of him the whole time for having his nose buried in his phone, but when she left she’d given him strict instructions to not stop talking to whoever was making him smile like that.  

Magnus likes the way Alec texts.  He takes out his phone but doesn’t compose anything new, just scrolls back through the last four days of messages.  Alec doesn’t use proper grammar in his messages, and he doesn’t seem to totally understand emoticons, and he’s not afraid to double text.  It’s all adorable.

Magnus is just trying to decide if he has a suitably witty story to initiate a conversation with when he hears a quiet, “Hey,” behind him, and nearly jolts out of his seat at the break room table.

“Alexander?” he asks happily, but even as he spins around he knows he recognises the voice.  Alec is stood in the doorway, all tall and strong and making Magnus want to climb him like a tree, and he’s got the most adorable tiny smile on his face, and -- _oh._

“Magnus?” Alec says, tentative, after Magnus loses the ability to speak for a few seconds.  Alexander is wearing a deep purple shirt, tighter than usual around his arms and the hard plane of his stomach.  Magnus thinks he might swoon, like a Victorian lady in a heatwave.

“Well,” he says, his voice coming out a little breathless as he finally looks back up from Alec's chest.  “Don’t you look positively edible.”

Alec rolls his eyes, but Magnus doesn’t miss the little smug look that flashes across his face.  Does Magnus dare hope that Alec has dressed up this deliciously with him in mind?

“Alright, calm down,” says Alec, beginnings of a grin forming on his face.  “It’s just a shirt.  It was a present from Izzy.”

“Mmm, I’ll be sure to thank her.”  Magnus is barely even joking.

“I’m just down getting some autopsy results from her.  Thought I’d say hi.”

“Hi,” Magnus echoes, shifting closer to where Alec’s still stood in the doorway.  He reaches out and brushes his fingertips ever so lightly against Alec’s bicep, watching the muscle shift as Alec tenses.  The smugness is all gone from his expression when Magnus looks back up, but he doesn’t seem to be complaining, either.  “So is this case anything I can help with?”

“Uh,” says Alec, and he does seem to be getting over his initial habit of stuttering around Magnus as time passes but Magnus so enjoys when it crops back up.  “Um.  No, the scene was too contaminated to get any good forensics, so there’s nothing to run.”

“Shame,” says Magnus, still a little breathless but trying to sound as confident as he usually does anyway.  “We still haven’t had that romantic crime scene encounter.”

Alec sharply rolls his eyes again, a blush painting the very top of his cheeks.  Magnus grins.

“Yeah, well.  I should get to Izzy in a second, I just wanted to -- uh, to say I’m sorry I’ve been too busy to get coffee yet.  It’s just that we have a few really big cases at the moment and the sarge is breathing down our necks about close rates and I haven’t really --”

Magnus brings up one finger and presses it into the air right in front of Alec’s lips.  Not touching, not quite, but enough that he can feel Alec’s cool breath on his skin, and they both seem a little dazed when he pulls his hand away.

“I understand the demands of your career, don’t worry,” Magnus assures him.  “But you know, I do think this date is gaining interest the longer we leave it.  Let’s upgrade it to dinner instead of coffee, shall we?  Whenever you’re free.”

Alec grins.

“Yeah,” he says.  “Okay.  That sounds good.  Uh -- I should go back to the murder.”

“I suppose I can allow that,” Magnus says.  Alec lingers for one more long second before turning and heading back out into the morgue, stumbling a little against the door.

As soon as he’s gone, Magnus takes out his phone and opens his texts again.

[ Nov.12 -- 13:08 -- To: Alexander <3 ]

_You should wear that shirt more often.  I wasn’t kidding about you looking edible ;)_

He’s still so close that he can hear Alec’s phone chirp in the morgue next door.  He starts making himself a cup of coffee, and isn’t even finished changing the filter when Alec replies.

[ Nov.12 -- 13:09 -- From: Alexander <3 ]

_maybe ill wear it on our date_

Magnus’s cheeks heat up happily.  Well.  So long as they’re on the same page.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave a comment letting me know how you liked magnus's section, and any other thoughts about the story! i love you guys and all your feedback! <3
> 
> you can also come talk to me on [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> someone asked me last chap about alec's eyes not being blue, so i want to direct you all to [this heavenly post](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com/post/142372424231/sassyarcherboy-alec-those-gorgeous-eyes-of) of matt daddario's gorgeous hazely-green eyes <3 as i've said before i'm going by the show!verse appearances, where alec doesn't have blue eyes, though apparently some people thought he did idk idk, the point is his eyes are glorious
> 
> hope you guys enjoy the chap! oh, there's mature content of the self lovin' variety in this one, just as a heads up. if you're uncomfy with that you can just skip that section, there's nothing plotty in there

Nobody should look as good at a crime scene as Magnus Bane does.

Alec’s not expecting him to be there, which doesn’t help.  Since Magnus started work they’ve never crossed paths in the field; Alec had assumed Magnus just had the lab techs bring samples back and he analysed them there.  But when they walk into apartment 12-J to investigate their latest homicide, there he is, crouched over the body and somehow making a white lab coat and plastic visor look absolutely sinful.  Alec stumbles a little and has to steady himself on the wall.  Thankfully Jace doesn’t notice.

“Look, there’s loverboy,” Jace mutters, nudging Alec when he spots Magnus later a moment after Alec does.  Alec levels Jace with a glare.  Jace just grins.

Deciding to take the high road, Alec ignores him and crosses the room in a few long strides.

“Magnus, hey.”

“Alexander!” He straightens up, handing off an evidence bag to a nearby crime scene tech and then lifting off his protective visor so Alec is exposed to the full force of his dazzling eyes.  “I didn’t know I’d be seeing you here.  Well, it’s good to know New York has its best men on the case.”

His gaze travels the long journey up and down Alec’s body for a moment, and Alec shifts awkwardly.  He can’t decide whether it’s inappropriate to flirt at a crime scene or not.  It’s never happened to him before.

“Er, right.  So have you found anything?”

The change in Magnus when he becomes businesslike is palpable.  His posture straightens, his chin lifts, and his eyes lose all their playfulness, settling into an expression that makes Alec feel like he’s being analysed where he stands.  It’s worryingly hot.

“Victim is twenty three years old, according to her ID.  Based on the state of the body she can’t have been dead more than three hours.  Preliminary cause of death is strangulation, though Isabelle will need to confirm that back at the station.  But the bruising on her neck indicates whoever did it used their bare hands.  We dusted the scene for prints and haven't found any but I think we may be able to get one off the victim's necklace. We're going to blacklight the place in a minute and see if we come across any more DNA evidence around the exit.”

Alec is impressed.  He’s very impressed.  Alec cares a lot about his job, far past the point that most people would consider unhealthy, and seeing Magnus being overwhelmingly competent and helping them on their case is actually kind of turning him on.  Which is super worrying.  There’s a dead body like, two feet away.

“Um,” says Alec, staring right into Magnus’s glitter-ringed eyes and trying not to blush.  “That’s great.  Thanks.  Let us know when those results come through?”

“Anything for you, Alexander.”  And just like that, Magnus is back to flirty.  It’s almost a relief for Alec, which is just bizarre.  Magnus pulls off his latex gloves with a _snap,_ and moves to talk to one of the techs, while Jace just grins and slowly shakes his head at Alec.

“Don’t say a word,” Alec warns him.  

\-----

One thing a lot of people don’t realise about being a cop is that it can be just plain gross.

As soon as Alec steps back into his apartment that night he’s shedding clothes and heading to the shower.  It’s pretty much what he does every day.  It’s not just the extreme stuff like corpses and severed body parts that are disgusting -- the precinct itself always smells like a combination of the drunks in the holding cells and everyone’s weird lunches, and most of the time they spend on the streets they’re either at dirty crime scenes or chasing down leads around the seedier parts of Brooklyn.  By the end of every day Alec finds that he pretty much smells like his job.  And his job is not roses.

Still, by the time he’s under the spray of the shower, most of that’s forgotten.  It’s a good way to relax, too.  Alec’s not very good at relaxing.  He doesn’t leave work at the office by a long shot; he’s solved some of his best cases in bed at 2am, like watching weird Netflix documentaries in the dark somehow kickstarts his brain.  But other than when he’s cooking, the shower is probably the only place he gives himself permission to let his mind go totally blank.

Well, usually.  Alec’s mind doesn’t feel particularly blank today.

Alec’s not stupid, and he knows the reason he’s feeling so restless.  He shifts under the hard spray of the shower and runs his fingers through his hair, feeling it plaster against the back of his neck as it gets wet.

Magnus Bane.  Alec’s been fine all day, pretty much, has been getting on with his job, and Magnus had even texted him a couple of times and Alec had responded to the texts in a perfectly acceptable way and not given any of it too much thought.  But Magnus had looked so freaking good at that crime scene.  His ass bent over was practically criminal, and Alec honestly must have a bit of a competency kink because he can’t stop thinking about Magnus talking about fingerprint analysis.  It’s ridiculous.

The shower feels too hot, even though Alec has it set to the same temperature every single day.

Alec’s hands slip out of his hair and down his body almost without his permission.  He always feels guilty if he jerks off thinking about someone he knows, prefers to watch some random porn or turn to a few faceless bodies in his imagination when he gets the urge.  But then Magnus has made the nature of his interest very clear, and he’s certainly not shy; would he really mind, even if he knew?  Alec’s dick is half hard just wondering.

Oh, fuck it.  He’s had a long day and he really can’t find the energy to censor himself in the privacy of his own thoughts.  He lets himself think about Magnus’s intense, sparkling eyes, his flushed red lips and the way they shine damp when he flicks his tongue out over them.  Alec’s dick is swelling harder after just a moment, heat flooding through his whole body, and he steps a little out of the spray of the shower to brace one hand on the wall and take hold of himself with the other.  His hips immediately stutter into the contact, a soft huff of breath leaving his lips.  Alec doesn’t jerk off a lot and when he does it’s in a fairly utilitarian way, but this feels almost too good.  He pictures Magnus, thinks about the small and tantalising hints of Magnus’s skin that he’s seen, his arms and the sliver of his chest and those plump lips and his pretty fingers.  Alec imagines it’s Magnus’s fingers wrapped around his cock, glittery nails teasing at his foreskin, soft palm working him up and down, faster and faster as Alec pants against him.  He imagines pushing into Magnus’s grip, fucking his hand and trying to push their bodies as close together as possible, wrapping his arms around Magnus’s bare body.  Rutting against him desperately, kissing him, pulling at his hair, sucking on his lip -- sucking on other parts of him.

As soon as he imagines that, he’s done for.  It’s barely been a few minutes but Alec stops breathing and his core all clenches up into bright heat and then he’s coming against the wall, his hand clenching tight and working himself through it as he thinks about sucking Magnus Bane’s dick.

When he stops coming, Alec takes a few deep, uneven breaths.  His cheeks heat up and all of a sudden he becomes aware that the rest of him is cold, out of the spray of the shower.  His knees feel a little weak but he forces himself back under the water, and tries not to feel embarrassed.

Magnus is kind of making him feel like a teenager again, and Alec’s not sure it’s a good thing.  

\-----

The next day of work moves like molasses, but at least he has dinner to look forward to.  Tuesday night dinners with Izzy and Jace have been part of Alec’s routine for years now, pretty much since they all started working at the same precinct, and sometimes Max, now almost out of high school and thus old enough to travel by himself according to their parents, will even make the subway journey from Manhattan for it, though not as often as they’d all like.  Izzy has the nicest apartment, with an actual table and multiple chairs that are suitable for eating around, so they usually go to her place.  This has the slight downside of her often insisting on cooking.  Alec has their emergency takeout place on speed dial for Tuesday nights.

Alec sits on Izzy’s couch and tries to resist the urge to go and check on her cooking.  He knows she doesn’t appreciate it, and she’s always been kind of annoyed that he picked up cooking as naturally as breathing while she still can’t make toast.  It's not that he doesn't understand why -- their mom is a difficult person to please or relate to, and she was always proud that Alec picked up her cooking skills so well.  Of course, Izzy is completely fluent in her Spanish, which pleases Mom at least a little, where Alec still stumbles over his conjugations when he's going fast.  Max and Jace are both terrible at cooking _and_ Spanish, so Alec personally thinks he and Izzy are doing well.  But she’s never quite managed to get over the food thing.  It's just another thing Mom snipes at her about.

Still, even knowing how annoyed Izzy would be, it’s hard to resist the urge to go check on her.  It’s partly due to the ominous charred smell that’s drifting from the kitchen, but since that’s pretty par for the course when it comes to Izzy cooking, his problem is more that he wants to be anywhere other than the room he’s currently in.

Which happens to be the room where Jace and Clary are making out.

Alec’s not quite sure when Clary even became a part of Tuesday dinners, which are supposed to be _family_ dinners, but she’s come to a few now.  Not every week since she and Jace made it official, but not far off.  Alec doesn’t have a problem with that per se, but he does have a problem with the fact that they’re a disgustingly affectionate couple and he is a bitter single who is vastly uncomfortable around PDA.  Especially straight people’s PDA.  

“Can you two try and control yourselves?” he eventually snaps, having seen more than enough of Clary’s tongue for one day.  Clary makes an embarrassed noise and pulls away.

“Alec!” she says.  “Oh my god, I totally forgot you’re in here.”

Unfortunately she’s still practically sat in Jace’s lap and he’s just moved on to kissing her neck, laughing a bit as he does it.  Alec hates his brother.  Clary tries to shove him off her, but then something out of Alec’s line of sight is slapped and she squeaks, her cheeks going pink.  Jace keeps kissing her.

Alec’s kind of worried he might barf.

“Y’know what, I’m gonna go see if Izzy needs any help in the kitchen,” he says, unfolding his long legs from the couch and fleeing as fast as he can.  Even Izzy's wrath is better than this.

\-----

“Iz?” he calls out as he retreats through the kitchen door.  His eyebrows shoot up when he looks around; the room is an explosion of dishes and half-chopped vegetables and their mom’s handwritten recipe pages, smoke pouring out of a pan on the stove and Izzy standing in the middle of it all with frazzled hair and trembling lips.  He lets the door swing shut behind him and asks, “Want me to call for takeout?”

“No!” she exclaims.  Alec starts a little.  Usually at this point in the evening she easily gives up; Jace gets to clean the kitchen and everyone gets to eat pizza and they’re all happy.  Today she seems to determined to power through it, though, aggressively waving a spoon at the big pan on the stove.

“What are you making?” he asks tentatively, taking a few more steps into the room.

“Carne con chile rojo, but I can't get it to taste like mom’s does!”  She throws her spoon down on the countertop with a loud _clang_.

“How much red chile powder did you use?” Alec asks after a long moment of pause.  Izzy’s eyes look a little damp, but she scrubs at them furiously as she replies.

“One teaspoon.  Just like her recipe says.”

“Well, there's your mistake,” Alec says, and smiles just a little.  “When mom says a teaspoon, she really means a bucket.”

Izzy nods a couple of times, but she doesn’t seem all that happy.  It’s a testament to how much Alec loves his sister that he puts an arm around her shoulders, takes the spoon out of the chile pan, and tries a bit.  It’s -- well, it’s Isabelle’s cooking, but it’s far from the worst thing she’s ever made.  More spice can always hide that slightly burnt and over-salted taste.  He searches around for a moment until he spots the red chile powder on the counter, and he throws in a few more generous spoonfuls of that.

“Thanks,” Izzy says, but her heart really doesn’t sound in it.  She resumes stirring without looking at him.

“Is everything else okay?” Alec checks a little hesitantly.  Izzy shrugs, and he decides to take a guess.  “It’s not Meliorn again, is it?”

Izzy turns her head a little and looks up at him out of the corner of her eyes, lips pressed together sheepishly, which is basically answer enough.  Alec sighs.  

Meliorn and Izzy have been dating on and off since college, and Alec’s not particularly sure they’re good for each other.  Meliorn has a tendency to sway to the other side of the law than the Lightwoods do.  Not that he’s an evil hitman or a mob boss or anything, but still, there are some deeply fundamental differences between his and Izzy’s moral codes that lead them to fight more than they get on.  When they are getting on, though, they’re crazy about each other -- almost addicted.  Alec’s seen them go through the whole routine so many times by now that he doesn’t even get surprised by it anymore.

“It just feels so good to see him again.” Izzy looks back down at the food instead of at Alec.  “I know it’s a bad idea, I _do.”_ She sighs.  “You’re so lucky you’ve never been in a relationship like this, Alec.”

Alec doesn’t have a Meliorn, it’s true, but he thinks he’s been in a couple of situations that were similar.  There’s a couple of guys he’s done the on-off thing with, those little romances he’s known are bad news but has had trouble letting go of anyway.  He’s just never gotten quite as emotionally invested as Isabelle.  Which is a good thing.

“You know I just want you to be happy,” he says, squeezing her shoulder and trying not to wince when she adds more salt to the chile.

“I know, big brother.”  She smiles a big red smile at him, and even if her eyes still look a little sad, Izzy’s smiles never fail to make Alec smile too.  “That’s all I want for you, too, you know.  I worry about you -- I know, I _know_ you’re going to say I shouldn’t, but I do.  You try so hard to take care of everybody else.  I wish you’d have someone to take care of you every once in a while.”

“I’m fine, Iz.  I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”

“I know you don’t _need_ it.  But it’s good for you.  I know you hang out with us, and with Maia sometimes or Aline when she's in town, but you don’t really date and you never seem to do stuff that’s just for you.  I worry about you being lonely.”

Alec’s not lonely.  He’s absolutely not lonely.  He’s too busy with his job and his siblings and his friends to ever be lonely.  And he had that one night stand a few months ago, which basically counted as dating, so it's not like he's been totally single for that long.  His apartment does seem very quiet at night sometimes, but Alec likes it that way.  He really does.

Okay, so maybe he’ll get a cat.

“Don’t say that, I’ll start hanging around and bugging you all the time,” he tries to joke, but Izzy raises an eyebrow and is completely unimpressed.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it, but Magnus told me he asked you out.”  Shit.  “And that you’ve been texting.”  Apparently Magnus is just as bad at his sister when it comes to gossiping about Alec's personal life.  “Alec, you’re always so cautious with guys, and I know it’s ‘cus Mom and Dad messed us all up a whole bunch, but I really want you to be happy now.  Will you please give Magnus a chance?  A proper chance, not the usual Fort Knox routine with your emotions and breaking things off after a month.”

Izzy’s stopped stirring and there’s some slightly worrying smoke coming off of the chile, but if he points that out she’s just gonna say he’s deflecting.  Alec sighs and looks at her eyes, which are always his downfall; they’re so big and sweet and imploring, and he hasn’t been able to say no to them since the day she was born.

“I’ll give him a chance,” he says, “If you promise you’re not just gonna go through the same routine with Meliorn this time around.  You need to break this pattern, Iz.”

Izzy holds out a hand.

“Deal.”

They shake on it over the top of their burning dinner.

\-----

Alec waits until he’s back in his own apartment, where it’s quiet and dark and there seems to be a marked amount of _nobody else here,_ before he texts Magnus.

[ Nov.18 -- 21:26 -- To: magnus bane ]

_im off work this friday evening_

[ Nov.18 -- 21:26 -- To: magnus bane ]

_do you want to get dinner with me?_

He puts down his phone and goes to get a drink, but he’s barely two steps into the kitchen when he hears his phone buzzing with a new text.  His stomach feels kind of tight and nervous but he forces himself to finish pouring his juice and then drinks it before he heads over to check his messages -- he doesn’t want to seem quite as keen as he really is, which is ‘far too’.

[ Nov.18 -- 21:27 -- From: magnus bane ]

_I can think of nothing I would like to do more, Alexander!  Do you like Ethiopian food?  There’s a place on 44th that I’ve been meaning to try for ages -- perhaps we could chart the new territory together._

Alec likes Ethiopian food.  Even if he didn’t, he thinks he’d probably agree to go wherever the hell Magnus wanted.

[ Nov.18 -- 21:29 -- To: magnus bane ]

_okay, its a date_

Friday.  In three days time, Alec will be going on a date with Magnus Bane.  

He resists the urge to scream into a pillow.  He is mature, he is a grownup, he is completely able to handle the thought of getting dinner with a hot guy -- even one that he has an embarrassingly teenage kind of crush on.

Alec has a feeling Friday is going to come around very slowly, now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you leave a comment i love u forever, that's how it works
> 
> coming up next time: the actual date holy crap they are actually going on an actual date. ethiopian food! sexual tension! alec being awkward and magnus being flirty! will things be a trainwreck? will they both be scared off dating for life? will they be overcome with passion and have sex on the restaurant floor? anything could happen
> 
> you can find me on [tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com) if you wanna chat!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a summary of people who say when they're gonna update and then actually update at that time: not me  
> a summary of people who are gonna change their terrible terrible ways: lol still not me
> 
> in other news, i think this is the longest chap yet

On Wednesday, Alec wakes up before his alarm, startled out of sleep early by a particularly vivid dream.  It leaves him dazed and a little flushed until halfway through his first cup of coffee.  He moves past it, and gets dressed and goes to work and bickers with Jace and goes to a meeting with vice and fills out some paperwork and goes to talk to a CI about a murder and runs through a crime scene again, and then goes home and has a shower and doesn’t jerk off and makes tamales from scratch because they’re the most complicated thing he can think of and he wants to turn his brain off for a really long time to see if it’ll help him at all with figuring out any of their impossible cases.  He doesn’t see Magnus.  They still text most of the day.

On Thursday, Alec wakes up to a good morning text from Magnus, and eats leftover tamales for breakfast, and spends the morning at the shooting range with Jace because they’re both frustrated over their last two cases, and gets lunch with Izzy and Jace at the food truck across the street from the precinct and they both tease him about Magnus, and he spends the afternoon going over evidence and sorting out boring stuff for court, and when his shift finishes he sees Magnus at the elevators and they talk for two minutes and Alec goes home ridiculously flushed and watches history documentaries for the rest of the evening.  He texts Magnus good night at eleven PM, but it takes him hours more to fall asleep, because he keeps tossing and turning and remembering every single embarrassing thing he’s ever done on a date.

On Friday, Alec wakes up groggy and a little grumpy, and doesn’t quite remember why until he takes his first sip of coffee and thinks _date._ He eats his toast and gets dressed and walks to the subway in a state of mild panic and keeps on thinking _date date date,_ and barely hears a word in their morning briefing and then he goes and investigates a crime scene in probably the most distracted way he ever has, and Jace keeps on teasing him about having Magnus on his mind, even though Jace doesn’t know about the date, and Alec is just getting more and more worked up all day, his fingers itching to craft a text and cancel, except he doesn’t _want_ to cancel, he just doesn’t want to go.  But he does want to go.  But he hasn’t been this nervous for a date in years.  Alec finishes all his paperwork for the day early and then he’s back on the subway and home by five, earlier than usual, with nothing to do.

He takes a shower but feels so jittery the whole time that he ends up just quickly washing his hair and getting out again, drying himself methodically, and then going to stand hopelessly in front of his wardrobe.

He hasn’t seen Magnus all day, though they’ve texted a couple of times.  Either way, he doesn’t have to see Magnus to know that he’ll be wearing something amazing -- and Alec’s never even seen him outside of his work clothes, which are already pretty scandalous, so he’ll probably look twice as incredible when he turns up for their date.  Alec, on the other hand, only really differentiates his work clothes through button-downs instead of t-shirts.  Only if he’s going on a date he should probably wear a button-down anyway.  Which essentially leaves him with just his work clothes.  Which are boring, and which Magnus has seen twenty times before.

Alec pulls on underwear and black jeans, simple enough, but is at a loss for his shirts.  He hesitantly reaches for the purple one he’d worn last week; Magnus’s eyes had gone kind of appreciative when he’d seen it, right?  The colour’s dark enough that it could be mistaken for black in bad lighting and it’s not some kind of nice material, just soft cotton, but it’s probably the best he’s gonna get.  Even if Magnus has seen him in this exact outfit before.

He puts it on and mulls over the fact that it might be time to finally, finally let Izzy take him shopping.  She’ll be thrilled.

He’s just fiddling unhappily with the buttons when his phone buzzes.

[ Nov.21 -- 17:29 -- From: magnus bane ]

_This is a very important question: Do you prefer red or yellow?_

Alec finds himself grinning without even noticing, as so often seems to happen when Magnus texts him.  He sits down on the edge of his bed, forgetting his wardrobe issues completely.

[ Nov.21 -- 17:30 -- To: magnus bane ]

_why??_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:30 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Because I’m trying to decide what to wear, of course! I can’t have you hating my outfit, it could destroy our relationship completely._

[ Nov.21 -- 17:31 -- To: magnus bane ]

_it doesnt matter what you wear, you always look good_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:34 -- From: magnus bane ]

_See if you’re still saying that when I turn up in pink hotpants ;)_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:35 -- To: magnus bane ]

_u act like you’re joking but im 90% sure u really own those_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:36 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Hah!  Suppose you’ll have to wait and see, darling._

[ Nov.21 -- 17:36 -- From: magnus bane ]

_So the restaurant is on 44th, shall we meet at the subway station?_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:37 -- To: magnus bane ]

_my apartments nearby so ill walk there_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:37 -- To: magnus bane ]

_but ill meet you outside the station? @ 7?_

[ Nov.21 -- 17:41 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Seven is perfect.  I’ll text you when I’m on my way!_

Alec sets down his phone, still smiling.  That gives him an hour to convince himself that he can manage to not totally screw up this date -- right?

\-----

By the time he’s stood in front of the subway station, Alec’s about ready to cancel the date again.  Instead of convincing himself that it’ll be fine, he’s convinced himself of the exact opposite, and now there’s an unpleasantly warm feeling in his stomach and his throat that makes him think he’s gonna barf.  It’s cold, too, so he’s pretty sure that his nose has gone pink and he’s gonna look ridiculous when Magnus arrives.

He shifts, shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his leather jacket.  He’d wanted to look kind of smart in his button down, but in the end he had to prioritise not getting frostbite so he’s wearing an unzipped hoodie under his jacket too, the hood pulled up over his ears.  It’s black, like everything else he’s wearing except the shirt.  From behind he probably looks like he’s about to go rob something.

It’s not the busiest time of night but there’s still a bit of a flood of people heading out of the station every time a train arrives, so Alec can tell when Magnus’s one is there.  He gulps, shifting his feet again and trying to ignore the hard hammering of his heart.  All he can think about is being awkward, about what will happen if he has nothing to say, or even worse if he says something terrible, if Magnus never wants to go out with him again, if Magnus wants to leave early because it’s so bad, or if something incredibly bad happens that just ruins the date for both of them and they can never even look at each other again at work and Alec will get fired for not being able to go crime scenes where there’s forensics and then he’ll have to go back and live with his parents and listen to them insult him every day and --

“Alexander!”

Oh.  There’s Magnus.

“Magnus,” Alec says, taking a deep breath and trying to pretend like his voice doesn’t come out a bit too deep and panicked.  “Hey.”

Magnus pushes through the other people emerging from the station and heads right towards Alec.  He looks dazzling, as always, but also remarkably casual; there’s the usual glitter everywhere, and a lot of intricate eye makeup, and his open black peacoat has strands of shimmering silver worked through it, but underneath that it looks like he’s just wearing a red sweater and jeans.  The jeans have colourful patches on them and the sweater is tight and probably costs more than anything Alec’s ever owned, but still.  He’s glad he doesn’t feel quite so underdressed as he thought he would.

“I see you wore your gorgeous purple shirt again.  If you’re trying to woo me, it’s certainly working, darling.”

He reaches Alec and ends up standing a little too close to him, looking up flirtily through his thick lashes.

“Hah,” Alec says, not quite sure how to reply but feeling his cheeks flush.  “You, uh, you look nice too.”

“I knew you secretly preferred red.”

“I honestly don’t think that much about colours,” Alec insists, but Magnus does look particularly stunning in the dark reds he seems to favour.  It’s just that Alec pretty much likes Magnus in anything.  He’d probably look hot in a salmon leotard.

“Well, that’s a tragedy we will have to address later.  Remind me to bring it up again.  For now, shall we get going?”

“Oh -- yeah.”  Alec remembers quickly that he’s freezing, and they’re still just stood around on the street.  Magnus’s presence distracts him far too easily.

\-----

The restaurant’s cute.  It’s tiny and erratically decorated like it could just be someone’s house, casual but lowly-lit with enough candles to feel romantic.  There’s a few other people there but not enough that they need to worry about not having reservations; they’re immediately shown a table in the corner, and between the lighting and the way it’s blocked off the whole thing feels private enough to have Alec’s spine tingling a little.

“I don’t know much about Ethiopian food,” he admits as he looks over the unfamiliar menu.  He knows he’s had some of it before but he can’t quite remember the names of anything.  “What’s good?”

“You mean this isn’t part of your endless culinary repetoire?  I’m disappointed.”  Magnus is teasing, but Alec still blushes a little.  He’s been texting Magnus about what he makes for dinner the last week or so, and Magnus never stops commenting on his rather far-reaching international tastes.  “Let me order for you?  It’ll be fun!”

‘Up for anything’ is probably not a phrase anyone would ever use to describe Alec, except when it comes to food.  He’s actually glad Magnus asked -- maybe it’ll make him seem more adventurous.

“Sure,” Alec agrees.

The waiter comes over, a middle aged man with a heavy accent and a big smile, and Magnus happily chats with him for a while, asking about the food and wine and getting suggestions.  Alec sits back and watches, kind of happy to not say a word.  There’s something about Magnus that’s just so -- _personable,_ and it’s amazing to watch.  Alec wonders whether Magnus ever feels nervous, or unconfident.  It doesn’t seem like it.

By the time their food comes, Magnus has regaled Alec with a long story about the epic birthday party he threw for his cat last year, and Alec is laughing, feeling giddy and kind of flushed.  The restaurant’s warm -- Alec’s taken off his jacket and his hoodie and rolled up his shirtsleeves and can still feel it, but it’s a pleasant kind of warm, probably helped by the glass of wine he’s had.  The warm and the dark are making everything feel too sweet.

“So what did you order me?” Alec asks, after the waiter leaves and he takes a good look at his plate.

“The bread on the bottom is called injera -- you kind of use it as your cutlery.  There’s a few different things on top.  Those dumplings are called shimbra asa, and the chickpea curry is butecha.  You did say you’re okay with spice, right?  According to the menu, there’s a lot of jalapeño in there.”

“I’m definitely alright with jalapeños.  If you grew up with my mom’s cooking and you didn’t like spice, you probably would have starved.”

Alec fumbles with the flatbread on his plate, trying to tear a piece off to start eating.  Magnus does the same thing, only much more gracefully.

“Is your mother the one who taught you to cook?” he asks.  Alec abandons his food for the moment and takes a sip of wine instead.

“Yeah.  Well -- I mean, she got me started, but a lot of the stuff I cook now I started making after I left home.  But she taught all of us how to cook a lot of Mexican food, like her mom taught her, I guess.”

“And ‘all of you’ would be the charming Jace and Izzy as well, yes?”

Alec finally gets the hang of tearing his bread and takes a moment to eat some before replying.  It’s good -- very spicy, his mom would approve.

“Yeah, and Max.  Little brother -- he’s just about to turn eighteen, so he still lives at home.  I’m the only one who really picked up anything she taught us about food, though.  Max and Jace didn’t care, and Izzy -- well, her heart’s in the right place, but if she ever offers you something she’s cooked you’re better off calling the toxic spill squad and getting the hell out of there.”

Magnus laughs, and Alec feels an odd flush of pride at the fact that he’s the one who managed to elicit such a pretty sound.

“Unfortunately you’re too late to save me, darling.  She brought cookies into the lab one day.  They tasted mostly like baking soda and a little like soap.”

Unfortunately, Alec knows exactly what taste Magnus is describing.  It still haunts him whenever he remembers the wreck of his twenty sixth birthday party.

“She’s made those ones for me before, too.  I should probably be worried that she thinks that recipe’s good enough to repeat.”

“You still ate them?”

“She’s my sister,” Alec says, and Magnus looks at him like he’s just said something absolutely adorable, but Alec can’t figure out what.  “Um.  So, what about your family?”

Alec can tell the exact moment that Magnus tenses up.

“I fear that my complete story is a little too depressing for a first date -- trust me, it’s better for us both if I don’t go into it  But the highlights are that my mother died when I was six, and I moved with my stepfather from Indonesia to New York that same year, and he passed away when I was twelve, and after that I went into foster care.  I was very lucky, though.  And now I have a few friends who are like my family, horrible teasing and all, so I’m not missing out.”

Alec feels awful.  He knows he shouldn’t, because none of it has anything to do with him, but just the thought of beautiful Magnus going through all that hurts.  Magnus seems to radiate so much energy and vibrance, but it’s not always happy -- there’s a slightly dark side to him, and though Alec likes that, he wonders if it’s because of his family history.  Alec’s sure there’s worse stuff that Magnus isn’t telling him, too, which is totally fine since of course they don’t know each other too well yet, but still.  He swallows hard and looks across the table at Magnus, sad eyed.

“Sorry,” he says, which means practically nothing but still seems to make Magnus soften a little.

“Like I said, not really first date material.” Magnus smiles and it seems pretty genuine.  “But it was all a very long time ago now.”

“You told me about being born in Indonesia before,” Alec remembers.  “You said that, and that you have a cat, and that you got kicked out of high school, right?”

At that, Magnus really starts grinning, and takes a big sip of wine as his eyes sparkle.

“Another story for another time,” he says.  “But that one’s actually pretty fun.”

Alec, by mere virtue of the fact that Magnus’s smile is gorgeous and contagious, finds himself grinning too.

\-----

For the rest of the night, they talk about fun things.  Magnus tells fabulous stories about the year he spent travelling Europe and Asia after college, and Alec mostly recounts secondhand tales of Izzy and Jace’s shenanigans, though Magnus seems to laugh at how Alec clears up after them.  After they’ve finished eating, Magnus insists they drink espresso, as is apparently traditional in Ethiopia.  Alec agrees because Magnus seems so excited by it, even though it’ll keep him up for hours.

“It’s a Friday night,” Magnus points out, as the same waiter delivers the coffee to their table.  “Surely you have something fun to keep you up until the small hours?”

 _You,_ Alec thinks, and almost says but stops himself at the last minute.  He thinks it’d be easier if they were texting, but somehow he struggles so much more with trying to flirt when it’s face-to-face.  Plus, would that even count as flirting, or is it drifting into the territory of a straight up proposition?  Alec’s had two glasses of wine when he doesn’t really drink, so he’s feeling kind of overly warm and friendly.  He probably shouldn’t trust his own judgement at the moment.

By the time he’s finished going through all of that in his head, Magnus is on to talking about something else.  He’s recounting a story from work, which is actually probably still pretty dangerous, considering how turned on Alec had gotten the other day just watching Magnus be good at his job.  Still, Alec sits there and drinks his coffee and tries not to stare too obviously hard at Magnus’s lips as he talks, even though they’re very pretty.  

“Are you even listening to me?” Magnus asks halfway through his story.  Yes, Alec is, and that’s the problem, but Magnus seems very amused and mostly pleased by catching him staring, so Alec doesn’t say anything.

In his mind Alec has been awkwardly planning ways to insist on paying all night, but when the bill comes he just kind of grabs it before Magnus can say anything.  He doesn’t really believe in most of the ‘date etiquette’ things people go on about, but technically he’s the one who asked Magnus out, and besides all that he just likes the idea of buying Magnus dinner.  Magnus has done most of the talking and chose the restaurant and is the probably the only reason the whole thing hasn’t been a disaster, anyway.

“Such a gentleman,” Magnus says, grinning, and then Alec pretends to help him with his coat and opens the door for him with a flourish that he definitely wouldn’t have attempted pre-wine, and they’re both laughing by the time they get onto the street.

Alec’s apartment is between the subway station and the restaurant, so Magnus offers to walk him back.  Alec agrees readily.  He doesn’t want the date to end, and he can feel each second ticking away as they make their way down the street, forcing them a moment closer to their imminent goodbye.  They’re walking close, shoulders bumping together every few steps, the touch somehow exciting even in its innocence and through several layers of coats.  Magnus is talking about his cat, but mostly just for the sake of saying anything at all, so Alec doesn’t feel too bad that he’s not paying so much attention to the words themselves as he is to the way Magnus is saying him, the gorgeous lilt of his voice.  On some words Alec thinks he can pick up a bit of an accent, presumably from his childhood in Indonesia, though he largely sounds like he’s been in New York his whole life.

“This is me,” Alec is forced to say all too soon, Magnus going quiet just as they reach his apartment block.  They draw to a halt at the bottom of the steps, and Magnus looks up at the building appraisingly.

“Hmm.  Well, I can’t say it’s particularly charming from the outside, but that’s true of most of Brooklyn.  I’m sure your apartment is lovely.”

Alec’s apartment isn’t particularly lovely, but it’s definitely better than the rest of the building, that much is true.  He feels like he should say goodbye, turn around and go inside and not look back and that would be a perfectly normal end to a perfectly normal first date and Magnus has certainly hinted that he wants to go out again so it’s not like he’ll never get another chance, but -- Alec _really_ wants to invite Magnus up.  Not for particularly minxy reasons, he insists to himself, though he’s never been particularly opposed to sex on the first date.  But -- he could just show Magnus his place, offer him another coffee, maybe they could watch TV or something, and maybe, if it all felt right, they could kiss, an innocent first goodnight kiss on the comfort of the couch instead of stood in a dark and frankly slightly dangerous Brooklyn street.

Magnus is looking at him, those hypnotic brown eyes and a tiny flirty smile playing around on his lips, like he knows what Alec’s gonna say.  He’s _so_ pretty, and they’ve had such a good night, even if Alec did spill food down himself halfway through and have to ignore three separate calls from his siblings, who had unfortunately found out about the date.  Fuck it.  Alec’s gonna ask.

“Hey,” he says, fiddling with his keys and leaning just a little closer to Magnus, enjoying the faint scent of sandalwood and wine.  “Uh, do you maybe want to --”

“Alec!”

Alec tears his gaze away from Magnus and looks over his shoulder, confused.  There’s a figure stood in the doorway to his building, indistinguishable in the darkness for a moment, but then he steps forwards into the beam of the streetlamp, and Alec recognises him in an instant.  All thoughts of Magnus and kisses instantly leave his mind.

“Max?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLS COMMENT AND LET ME KNO IF U ENJOYED THEIR DATE AS MUCH AS ALEC DID. jk that is a trick question you cannot have enjoyed it as much as alec did, he enjoyed it so much. but lemme know if you wanted them to make out as bad as alec did. LOL STILL A TRICK QUESTION HE WANTED THAT SO MUCH THE MOST
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWO CHAPTERS IN LESS THAN TWENTY FOUR HOURS??? WHAT IS THIS JUNK????
> 
> this junk is me about to take a hiatus from this fic until next weekend cus im going to majorca with my gals and gonna get sloshed on free cocktails at the beach and have no time for writing for a weeeeek sorryyyyyy but not rlly sorryyyyyyy cus im gonna have a fun as hell time
> 
> until then pls be appeased with this unedited but hopefully sense-making chapter!!!

“What’re you doing here?”

Max hops down the steps to draw level with Alec and Magnus.  His head is mostly obscured by a hat and he's burying his hands deep in the pockets of his big winter coat so that he looks more like an overwhelmed mess of blue fabric than a teenage boy.

“I had a blowout fight with Mom and Dad.  Again.  They know I’m here though!  Well, I kind of told them as I was storming out the door.”

This is the fifth time this year that Max has turned up unexpectedly because of fights with their parents.  Alec hates that their family doesn't all get on and sighs as Max gives the unfortunately predictable explanations, but reaches forward to sling an arm around Max’s shoulder anyway, drawing him into a half-hug.  It’s always easy to lean on him because Max is kind of lanky but not tall the way Alec is; Alec’s actually the only tall one in their family, a head above both his parents.  Max is about the same height as Magnus, who -- oh.  Is still there.

“Magnus,” Alec says, not letting his arm drop from Max’s shoulders as he looks around.  Magnus is stood just behind them, with raised brows and a slightly derailed expression.  He doesn’t look annoyed or anything, which is good.  “This is my little brother.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Magnus says lightly.  “Though the circumstances could be better.”

There’s air and humour in his voice but Max just looks mostly confused.  

“Uh, right,” he says, glancing up at Alec,  _ who is this guy  _ in his eyes.  Alec presses his lips together.  It’s not that Max doesn’t know, it’s just that Alec’s never actually come out to him.  Or to his parents.  He’s sure Max, at least, has suspected before now.  

“Magnus, I’m really sorry, but I should probably take care of this.”

Alec can’t quite believe how different the vibe is now to what it was only a minute ago.  He feels completely stone-sober and slightly cold, none of the warm and daring ease he’d felt trying to invite Magnus up to his place, and the world seems far more sharp and clear.  From the look on his face, Magnus has felt the change, too, and Alec is blessed that he doesn’t seem to mind so much.  Having a panicked younger sibling turn up on your doorstep in the middle of an intense moment is not most people’s ideal end to a first date.

“Of course,” Magnus agrees, and his smile is endlessly kind, wise in a way his young face shouldn’t seem capable of.  “Family first, always.  But I had a lovely night.  We’ll have to finish this another time, Alexander.”

“Yeah.”  Alec’s a little breathless as he says it, the way he always gets when he looks into Magnus’s eyes for too long.  Then Magnus waves an enigmatic hand, turns, and walks away, onwards to the subway station.  Alec watches him go for a few too-long moments before he remembers the teenager under his arm.

“Sorry I interrupted your date,” Max says.  His eyes are evaluating and there’s a question in his voice that Alec frankly doesn’t care enough to dispute.  He’s twenty seven years old and he can’t even come out to his perfectly liberal, adoring little brother?  That’s just ridiculous.

“It’s fine.”  Or, it totally wouldn’t be fine if it were anyone but one of Alec’s siblings.  Luckily for Max, Alec would put his siblings above anything else in the world -- even possibly banging Magnus Bane.  Max raises his eyebrows, but Alec ignores him.  “C’mon.  Let’s get inside, and you can tell me all about it.”

\-----

The first order of anything emotional is a hot drink, in Alec’s opinion.  It’s too late for coffee and Max is a weirdo who doesn’t like tea, so Alec makes spiced hot chocolate for them both, and they sit on his soft old couch and drink it in the quiet for a few long minutes.

“Do Mom and Dad know you’re gay?”  Well, that’s certainly not how Alec expected Max to break the silence, and it’s also a hellishly loaded question.

Alec is pretty sure his parents  _ know.   _ They must suspect, they must, he hasn’t been honestly trying to hide it the last few years.  He’s just never said anything to them; never said  _ I’m gay,  _ never talked about his boyfriends or mentioned his dating life, has always awkwardly fielded any questions about girls.  He’s out at work, though, and his parents are both distinguished cops in the public affairs unit, they’re bound to at least have heard rumours about him from people they know in his precinct.  But they’ve never said anything to him, and he’s never said anything to him, and his mom keeps pointedly mentioning her friends’s pretty daughters at every single monthly dinner, so.  It all seems to be a bit of a stalemate.

“I’ve never told them.”  He takes a sip of his hot chocolate and thinks that’s the closest to a concise answer that’s true, adds, “If they suspect anything then they’re probably in serious denial anyway.”  Another moment of quiet, and it suddenly hits Alec, like a strange cold seeping down his spine.  “Max, the fight wasn’t -- you’re not --”

“No, no!  I mean -- not that there’s anything  _ wrong  _ with -- but no, this was… It’s just stupid job stuff, again.”

Oh.  Right.

See, the thing is.  Their mom is a cop, and their dad is a cop.  And their mom’s dad was a cop and their dad’s dad was a cop.  And their dad’s dad’s dad was a cop.  And both their parents are strict and not entirely reasonable people who think legacy is the be all and end all of happiness.  

Jace is a cop because he's good at it, because he likes adrenaline rushes and protecting people and playing with guns.  Alec is a cop mostly because he likes helping people and being responsible and taking care of everyone else, but also because it's what everyone expected of him, and he knows he spent far too long desperate for anyone’s approval.  Izzy's considered a rebel for becoming a pathologist -- she even works in a freaking police station.  Max, though, has always been different, and ever since he announced that he wanted to become a graphic designer, he’s somehow the black sheep of the family.     
  
“I think you’ll make a great artist,” Alec tells him.  It’s not a lie.  Max has been good at art his whole life; he was doodling with his crayons before he was talking.

“There’s no way I’m becoming a cop, there just isn’t.  But it’s so hard at home!  Sometimes I really think I hate them, Alec.  All Mom ever does is tell me how much worse I’m doing everything in the world than you guys did.”

Alec’s stomach churns at that, and he rests a hand on Max’s shoulder -- he’s not good at being comforting but he knows all too well what that can feel like.  The thing is, it’s as far from the truth as possible.  Maryse has never really approved of any of her kids.  She’s just found a way to make each of them feel like the worst compared to all the others.  Alec loves his mom in a lot of ways, but he understands how Max can think he hates her, too.

“Did you see that incredibly eccentric, glittery  _ man _ I just got back from a date with?” he says, setting his mug of chocolate on the table for a moment so he can slouch down and meet Max’s eyes.  “Do you think mom and dad would approve if they knew about that?  I’m far from their perfect child, Max, and you know Izzy and Jace still get in trouble with them practically every day.  And Izzy’s not a cop, is she?”

“I know, but she works in the same freaking precinct as you guys, it’s not exactly far off.”

“But Mom and Dad still don’t approve, do they?  I know it sucks, but that’s just what they’re like.  All I’m saying is you should try and move past it while you can.  Do what’s gonna make you happy.  You know me and Jace and Izzy will always be here for you, whatever happens.”

Max is quiet for a moment, folding all his lanky limbs together so his knees are pulled up and he can play with his laces.

“Why did you become a cop, Alec?  Was it because of them?”

Oh.  Alec’s actually not very good at answering that question, though Izzy seemed to ask it every single day back when he was in the academy.

“I guess it was a little.  Maybe more than a little, at first.  I’m not sure I ever would have considered it if they hadn’t been drilling the expectation into me since the day I was born.  But I really do love it now -- it’s not like I’ve given up my life to please them and make myself miserable.”

“That’s what I’d be doing, if I did what they want,” Max says, ducking his head down onto his knees.  “But Mom says they won’t pay for me to go to art school.”

Alec sighs and picks up his hot chocolate again.  He wishes that surprised him, but it doesn’t.  His mom was unimpressed when he chose to major in sociology and only minor in criminology, even though it was guaranteed he was going into the academy as soon as he graduated; her reaction to anything more extreme than that must have been bad.

“You’ll figure it out,” Alec promises him.  “I promise I’ll help if I can.  Try talking to Dad when she’s not around.  He’s got a reasonable side in him, somewhere.”

It’s unfortunately the best advice he can give, when it comes to their parents, but it seems to smooth out Max’s worried brow a little.  Alec considers that a win.

\-----

Alec lingers in the kitchen until he’s sure Max has fallen asleep, curled up in a borrowed pair of too-big sweatpants and a pile of spare blankets on the couch.  He’s nearly eighteen and it’s usually hard to forget that, but when he sleeps, he still looks like the little kid Alec remembers following him around for years, laughing and drawing on the walls and pissing off their parents at every opportunity.  So young and cute.

He watches Max for a few long moments, fuming at their parents in his head, but then just tucks the covers up more securely under his chin and heads to his own bed.  It’s too late to call them and rant on Max’s behalf -- and honestly, he’s never been good at standing up to his mom and dad at all, but he’s managed it for the sake of his siblings on occasion.  He’ll call Mom in the morning, he decides.  Or maybe Dad, and talk some sense into him first.

He feels restless, though, even as he changes into his pyjamas and crawls wearily under the covers of his bed.  It’s been a long day -- work and then the date and then Max, everything somehow seems weird and disjointed, like he’s had three totally separate days mixed into one, and it’s throwing him off.  He plugs his phone in at the wall but keeps a hold of it, fingers hovering over the keys.  He’d ended up talking to Max for more than an hour, but it’s still not  _ too  _ late, hovering just the wrong side of midnight.  And Magnus is a night owl anyway.

[ Nov.22 -- 00:14 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ im rlly sorry about that. parent drama. all fine but he’s gonna stay w/ me for a couple of days _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:15 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ It’s sincerely okay, Alexander, stop worrying!  I hope the both of you are okay? _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:16 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ yeah, both fine. well, our parents can be a lot to deal with, but they’re not bad people or anything _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:16 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ just have a lot of expectations.  about careers and other stuff _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:16 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ its the reason im not out to them, too _

The three little  _ typing  _ dots pop up at the bottom of Alec’s screen, and then stay there for a long time.  He burrows a little further down into his duvet and frowns at his phone, wondering why the long reply when Magnus is usually both a concise and speedy replier.  But when his phone eventually buzzes again, the message is incredibly short.

[ Nov.22 -- 00:19 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ You’re not? _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:19 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ trust me, it’s better this way.  mom would prbly disown me _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:20 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ I never would have guessed you were raised in that mindset, from how lovely you and Isabelle are. _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:20 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ I hope I didn’t make it awkward with your brother?  I think I was rather obvious that we’d just been on a date. _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:21 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ no, max is fine _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:21 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ im sorry he interrupted us, though.  i had fun tonight. i was gonna invite you up for coffee or something _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:22 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ I’m sure the ‘or something’ would have been amazing.  Guess we’ll just have to find out another time ;) _

Alec’s heart speeds up and he swallows hard, glancing to the door.  That is not helpful talk when he’s about to go to sleep.  If his body makes him have a dirty dream while his little brother is in the next room, he’s gonna be pissed.  Still, he can’t deny that no part of him is actually adverse to the idea of finding out what Magnus is talking about, to the idea of following up on that stupid winking emoji.  His skin is flushing just thinking about it, and he can’t find it within himself to think of a remotely composed response.  He really needs to get some sleep and put this whole intense day behind him.

[ Nov.22 -- 00:23 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ yes. soon _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:24 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ goodnight magnus _

[ Nov.22 -- 00:25 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ Goodnight, darling.  Have sweet dreams of somethings ;) _

Alec buries his face in his pillow for a moment and makes a choked sound.  Honestly --  _ honestly _ , he’s starting to feel like Magnus Bane is going to be too much for him.  But he's in far too deep to turn back now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm pretty sure there might be errors in this cus i didnt even proofread so pls let me know if you spot any. otherwise just lemme kno what u thought in general and what u want to happen next!! and the next chap will be in like ten days or something!!!! and i will be a beautifully tanned and incredibly hungover author and all will be right with the world !!!!!
> 
>  
> 
> [holla at me on tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY THIS WAS SUCH A LONG TIME !! i was on holiday and then i had my final assignment of my first year of uni (eek) and then i've just been in a super weird place emotionally for a few days so this was weird to write. anywho, i can promise this is the longest gap you'll ever have between chapters, at least. thank you for all being so lovely!! i hope you enjoy this :**

Alec takes Max back home on Sunday morning, spends a fruitless hour arguing with his mother, and is still feeling restlessly annoyed at her by the time he gets into work on Monday.  It seems vastly unfair that he hasn’t been able to enjoy the natural post-date giddiness he should have had after how well things had gone with Magnus, but he only resents that quietly and to himself.

Magnus isn’t in work on Monday.  It’s his day off -- because he runs his own department and is the only high-level employee there his schedule changes weekly, which he had informed Alec via text the night before, but Alec still finds his mood worsening when he gets into the precinct and remembers Magnus won’t be there.  Which is ridiculous.  He has plenty to do without the distraction of his -- of the guy he’s dating.   _Dating._ Which is somehow such an imposing word that Alec spends most of his morning coffee thinking about it instead of his job.

“Focus,” he mutters to himself when he finally sits down at his computer.  Jace won’t be in ‘til later, but Alec wants to get a headstart working on their latest murder, the girl found in the street.  It’s a tough case.  They haven’t even identified her yet -- through no fault of Magnus, who has done better than any other forensic scientist Alec’s ever met would have been able to, but her fingerprints just don’t seem to be anywhere in the system and she didn’t have anything on her that could have been used to figure out who she was, let alone who could have killed her.  Alec keeps going over the evidence again and again, hoping something different will add up. It doesn’t.

He searches for security cam footage again, and finds nothing.  He goes through the forensic results again and they’re no more clear.  He even tries calling the closest thing they have to a witness, the hotdog vendor who found her body, but it rings out to voicemail.   _Hi you’ve reached Stevie Schwartz leave a message._ Alec feels like he’s running in circles.  And not even in a productive way, like when he and Izzy go for jogs around the block.

When Jace gets into work, Hodge sends them off to a routine burglary, and they wind up solving it within the space of the afternoon.  It was the ex-boyfriend.  They track him down easily, arrest him, bring him in to the precinct, get a signed confession, and finish their paperwork before the end of their shift.  It doesn’t make Alec feel any better.

Still, he isn’t getting anywhere by applying himself to the murder case, so he figures maybe taking a break from it will work.  He goes home when his shift is over, takes a shower, jerks off to thoughts of exactly no forensic scientists who he went on a date with on Friday and hasn’t heard from all day, and then goes to make dinner.  He’s just started julienning carrots when his phone buzzes.

Seeing the name _Magnus_ on the screen is ridiculously calming to Alec -- it feels like he suddenly lets out a big knot of breath that’s been stuck at the top of his lungs all day.  He has to force himself to clean his hands of food before picking up his phone.

[ Nov.24 -- 18:25 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Do you ever get anything done on your day off, or is it just me who manages to make a to-do list three pages long and then realise at six thirty I’ve done nothing more than read magazines with my cat all day?_

[ Nov.24 -- 18:27 -- To: magnus bane ]

_how do you even have a 3 pg to do list? do you not do important stuff any other day?_

[ Nov.24 -- 18:28 -- From: magnus bane ]

_I didn’t say it was an important to-do list.  A lot of the items were to do with laundry, my nails, or beating the next level of candy crush._

[ Nov.24 -- 18:28 -- From: magnus bane ]

_But how was your day, darling?_

[ Nov.24 -- 18:30 -- To: magnus bane ]

_solved a case. didn’t solve a more important case. now im making dinner._

[ Nov.24 -- 18:32 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Ah, the downsides of the job.  I’m sure you’ll crack it soon, genius._

[ Nov.24 -- 18:32 -- From: magnus bane ]

_What are you making tonight?_

It’s ridiculous, but as Alec starts texting Magnus about honey-glazed root vegetables, he actually does feel a little better.

\-----

The next day Alec gives Jace a ride to work, so they’re both there before nine.  Magnus is getting into the elevator as they walk into the lobby; Alec waves, Magnus blows a kiss, the doors close and Jace doesn’t stop teasing about it for an hour.  They grab coffee and their case files and then go and settle in their favourite dark corner of the evidence room to try and crack this murder.

Two heads don’t seem to be any better than one.  Jace often has really good instincts on cases like this, but not knowing who the girl is seriously slows them down.  They can’t figure out who would have motive, means, or opportunity if they can’t even get her name.  

Out of something approaching a frustrated kind of desperation, Alec calls the hotdog vendor again, but he still doesn’t pick up.  Alec listens right to the end of the outgoing message, _Hi you’ve reached Stevie Schwartz leave a message,_ and he’s gonna ask the guy to call them back when all of a sudden Jace stops him with a hard thump to the arm.

“Hang up,” he says, eyes looking a little too wide, and Alec does.  “Call it again.”

“Anytime you wanna stop bossing me around is fine,” Alec mutters, but hits redial, speakerphone and lets it ring ten times until the message plays again.  Jace is staring down at the file in front of him without moving a muscle.

“ _Hi, you’ve reached Stevie Schwartz, leave a message,”_ the phone chirps, sounding cheerful as day.

“Alec,” says Jace, a little too slowly.  “Stevie Schwartz isn’t the name that guy gave us.”

Oh.

Oh _shit._

\----

Alec’s always known he can get a bit too robotic and ignore the humanity of cases, he’s always known his inability to remember witness names is gonna get him in trouble some day, and now it seems that it _has._ The witness details they have written down claim the hotdog vendor is one Antonio Garcia, but there’s more than a few of those in New York.  They go to the apartment he’d listed and find the residents are a lovely couple of women with a newborn baby.  One of them is an art teacher and the other runs a charity for homeless teenagers.  They’re both horrified to learn about the murder and offer to help in any way they can, but considering their apartment number is 123, Alec’s pretty sure their address was only a coincidence.

“Damnit!” says Jace when they’re back on the street.  He kicks at the tyre of their car, hard, and then curses again when it hurts his foot.  Alec’s certainly annoyed too but he can’t help but roll his eyes.

“Calm down.”  The last thing they need is Jace damaging another car.  Ever.  He’s gone through plenty already.  “Look, we must have a photo of the guy, right?  We’ll find him.  Nobody can just disappear.”

‘Nobody can just disappear’ is something cops say to each other when someone has absolutely, definitely, totally and completely just disappeared.

Judging by Jace’s glare, he knows that just as well as Alec does.  They’re screwed.

\-----

The thing is, this is probably the break in their case, but it doesn’t feel that way.  At least now they have a _suspect._ If they can just figure out who this guy is, everything else might fall into place.  But unfortunately, figuring out who he is happens to be the hard part.

They try to work through the rest of the day on it, but they’re both getting frustrated and not turning anything up.  It turns out they don’t even have a photo of him in the crime file.  They give their best descriptions to Clary and she turns out a sketch that Alec is _pretty_ sure looks similar to the guy they’re looking for.  It’s probably not enough to go on.

At five, Clary finally drags Jace away, enticing him with pizza and the promise of watching something violent on Netflix.  Alec feels like they’ll probably just go and have a lot of sex that he desperately doesn’t want to know about.  He blocks them out of his mind and keeps working for maybe fifteen minutes without Jace before giving up too.

He’s not gonna get anything else done today, and he really needs to go home and get some rest.  Maybe his brain will kick start tomorrow morning, and he’ll remember something important.  It’s possible.

He’s in the elevator when all of a sudden he just loses control of his body.  He is honestly fully intending to press the button for the ground floor, but instead, without even thinking about it, he presses _B._ Basement.

Magnus texted him earlier, just a silly anecdote about his lunch, but in all the chaos Alec had forgotten to text him back.  Magnus might not even still be downstairs, and it’s ridiculous to think that even if he _is_ seeing him will have the ability to make Alec’s day any better.  They’ve still only been on one date, and it had gotten cut short at the end; Alec knows he shouldn’t be as emotionally attached as he is.  But he can’t help but feel like if he sees Magnus, hears him joking and flirting, gets to look at whatever weird outfit he’s wearing today and how he’s defied gravity with his hair -- well, everything will at least feel a little better.

So he lets the elevator take him all the way down to the end of the building, and when he enters the morgue, the first thing he sees is Magnus.  He’s standing by an empty metal gurney, checking something on a clipboard, but when he hears the door he looks up.  His face turns into a radiant smile the second he lays eyes on Alec.

“Alexander!”  Alec stuffs his hands in his pockets and crosses the room, til he’s stood just a foot away from Magnus, across the gurney.  He takes a moment to drink in the look.  Glittering silver shirt, check.  A rainbow badge on his labcoat pocket, check.  Blue nail polish, check.  Hair swept up into an impressive quiff, check.  Magnus really is just happy to look at.  “To what do I owe this immense pleasure?”

He sets his clipboard down, and Alec watches his hands for what feels like a very long moment.

“I just wanted to see you for a minute.  I really need this to be at least kind of a good day.”

For a moment Magnus stares at him, eyes slightly dark and calculating in a way that sends a hint of a shiver down Alec’s spine.  But then he smiles, and Alec just feels warm.

“Want to see a picture of my cat?”

Without waiting for an answer, he pulls out his phone and shows it to Alec.  The picture is apparently his lockscreen.  It’s a tiny cat with a smushed little face, wearing a miniature beret.  It is adorable, in a weird kind of way, but when Alec smiles it’s because he can see Magnus’s fingers scratching the thing’s ears in the photo.

“The famous Chairman Meow,” he observes, staring at the picture for another long moment.  “D’you think he’d like me?”

“I guess we’ll find out when you meet him.”

 _When._ Alec blushes.  He then smiles a little more; after the stressful day he’s had, it somehow feels like a blessing to just be getting embarrassed over the cute guy he likes.  It’s relaxing.  Kind of puts things in perspective for all the other times he’s hated himself for blushing and babbling around Magnus.

“Yeah.  Uh, so what are you doing for Thanksgiving?”  It’s only two days away now, and Alec’s going home for an awkward dinner with his parents like he does every year, but Magnus doesn’t have parents and the rest of his family, if he has any, are presumably back in Indonesia.  There isn’t a moment of pain or anything that seems to flicker over Magnus’s face at the question though -- in fact, it rather makes him perk up.

“I’m spending the day with Ragnor and Catarina and Raphael.  They’re the friends I told you about -- they’re really family by now.  We do something every year.”

“That sounds nice,” Alec says, the words sounding a little pathetic even to his own ears.  There’s a pause and he feels suddenly desperate for something to say, and Magnus is just looking at him from across the gurney, eyes steady and knowing.  Alec hates the way his own skin feels so on edge.  This day is wearing him down.  “Hey, can I cook you dinner this weekend?  I mean, if you’re free.  And, uh, if you want to do something agai--”

“Alexander, I would love that.”  Alec lets out one huge, shaking breath, and feels about half the nervous tension leave his stomach.  Okay.  “Saturday, perhaps?”

“Saturday’s good,” Alec agrees.  He clutches at his phone in his pocket.  “I really should get going, I'm supposed to meet Izzy.  But I’ll text you.”

“Okay.  And Alexander -- really, don’t worry about work.  You’re an amazing detective.  So long as you know the right way to put on handcuffs and how to recite Miranda rights, the rest will all be fine.”

Alec smiles a bit, despite himself and his own bad mood.  Surely at some point Magnus is going to have to stop being so charming at every junction, right?  Maybe not.  Maybe he’s going to keep making Alec feel better every time they ever talk.

“You have the right to remain silent,” he reels off.  He must have read rights a thousand times -- he probably says them in his sleep.  “Anything you say can and will be held against you.”

He’s got _you have the right to an attorney_ on the tip of his tongue when he notices Magnus’s kind smile turning into something closer to a smirk.  Oh, no.

“Does that mean I should say your name?” Magnus asks.  Before he can help himself, Alec lets out a short, slightly disbelieving laugh.  He’s heard of that pickup line before, but nobody’s ever actually used it on him.

Honestly, nobody’s done a lot of things to him the way Magnus Bane seems to.

Magnus looks so pleased to have made Alec laugh, and then for a moment, they stand in silence.  They’re really close together.  Alec is suddenly aware of the fact that the air seems a little warmer where he’s close to Magnus; that he can look at Magnus’s eyes and see the slight smudges around them where his eyeliner isn’t perfect.  Nothing about anyone is ever perfect this close up, but Magnus might still be the nearest thing to it that Alec has ever seen.

He’s really, really beautiful.  The kind of beautiful that makes Alec’s stomach squirm and his heart stutter.  It’s not even really about his looks, though they’re certainly stunning; so much of Magnus’s beauty seems to hang in his eyes, in the personality that shines through his expressions.  They stare at each other and it feels like something warm and important is hanging between them in the air.

Screw it.

Alec leans over the gurney, grabs the lapels of Magnus’s labcoat, doesn’t quite manage to catch his breath before he crushes their lips together.

It’s a touch too desperate for a first kiss, a hint frantic, and Magnus has the softest lips in the world.  It’s all too much and Izzy really is waiting so Alec only lets himself enjoy it for a moment, just one long moment of his face pressed against Magnus’s, feeling the warmth of his mouth in a way that sends Alec’s whole body flushing and tingling, before he forces himself to pull away.

“Right,” says Alec quickly, unlocking his fingers from Magnus’s jacket a moment too late.  His knuckles are white from how tight he'd been holding on.  “Um.  I really have to go.  I -- text me.”

The first step he tries to take backwards has him stumbling, but he finds his feet again and quickly flees to the doorway.  He can’t leave like that, though.  He glances back over his shoulder one last time, and is met with a glorious sight -- Magnus grinning wider than Alec’s ever seen, the fingers of one hand pressed up against his lips.

Alec finds himself grinning too as he finally leaves, every nerve in his body still tingling from that tiny, simple kiss.  His day doesn’t actually feel bad anymore.  What’s a missing murder suspect when you have Magnus Bane, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lemme kno what you thought in the comments and i'll love you forever kay <33 up next: thanksgiving! the whole lightwood family and their awkness! a bit of sneaky magnus pov and meeting his friends for the first time! stay tuned honeybunches xoxox
> 
>  
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> [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was weird to write cus i'm not american so like ~wat is thanksgiving~ but i mostly skimmed over everything so hehee nothing matters in this worlddd
> 
> sorry it was another long wait! the next chap will be up on monday though! and thankyou so much for all your beautiful comments and messages to me about this fic <3

There’s an even less comfortable vibe than usual at the Lightwood Thanksgiving table.  It’s never been their family’s favourite holiday, really, but they do all the stuff you’re supposed to do; the big meal, saying some generic platitude you’re thankful for, pretending to like your family.  This year's worse though.  Max isn't speaking to their parents, and their parents aren't really speaking to Alec after he fought with them about the whole Max thing either, and Izzy is always a mess around their mother, but everyone's trying to pretend that none of that's going on, so it all just festers into a weird cloud over the table.  Max is making sullen eye contact with his plate and Maryse shoves the potatoes at Alec when she passes them. 

"Let's say what we're thankful for," Robert says placatingly before anyone can pick up their cutlery.  Maryse shoots him a look, but they do it every year; Alec's not sure why she's in such an especially foul mood today.  "I'm grateful for a great year at work."  

It's his go-to line.  Alec can barely restrain an eyeroll.  Jace goes next and says he’s thankful for  _ new love,  _ which is gross, and Izzy says new shoes, and Max says  _ I’m thankful for the dreams I have where I have a different set of parents who let me live my own life,  _ and Maryse finishes her wine glass in one gulp with her nostrils flared.  Going after that is hard.  Alec mumbles something vague about the weather and leaves it at that, but he can’t help but think of Magnus.  Remember that kiss.  It has him flushing below his collar just remembering it -- that’s something to be really thankful for, right there.

He tries to get his blush under control as Maryse starts carving the turkey, but he knows at least Jace has noticed because he’s grinning from across the table.  

“So, Isabelle,” says Robert, after approximately a full minute of awkward silence, “How’s work?”

It’s a little heartbreaking how much Izzy perks up just to be asked.  Maryse is still holding a grudge, thinking Izzy should have been a cop, but maybe it’s enough that their dad accepts her, since Izzy’s always been kind of a daddy’s girl anyway.  

(Max likes Robert too, and Jace is closer to Maryse.  Alec just doesn’t get along with either of them.)

“I actually just got asked to go and give a guest lecture to a bunch of pre-med students at NYU,” she tells him through a mouthful of turkey.  Alec had assumed their parents already knew that -- she texted the rest of the family as soon as she got the news.  But he supposes he doesn’t tell their parents the exciting things that happen in his life either, so he can’t blame her.

“Well, that’s great, I’m so proud,” Robert says.  Maryse pours herself more wine.

They move awkwardly through a few more topics of conversation -- Jace talks about Clary for way too long, Izzy and Max discuss the book he’s reading for English Literature, Alec and Jace both dodge a couple of questions about work.  They’ve almost made it through the main course with no major incidents, something that hasn’t happened for a record seven years worth of holidays, when Alec’s phone buzzes with a text.

He always keeps it on for work, so it’s reflex to glance down at the screen in his lap, no matter how many times his mom has announced that they have  _ screen free dinners.   _ It’s not work, of course.  It’s someone he’s far happier to hear from.

[ Nov.27 -- 15:18 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ I don’t fully believe in this holiday, but I’m going to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving anyway, darling. _

Such an innocuous text, but Alec is grinning before he can help it.  He goes to tap out a quick reply, but his dad clears his throat before his fingers can hit the screen.

“That’s quite a grin,” says Robert, and Alec immediately knows what’s gonna come next.  “Is there a special girl we should know about?”

Alec can actually see the reactions of all his incredibly unsubtle siblings.  Izzy purses her lips, Max stuff a huge potato into his mouth whole, and Jace actually snorts.  Alec glares at him.  Now Robert looks confused.

“No, there’s no girl,” Alec says.  He hates lying, but that’s not a lie at all.  “I was actually just remembering that time you guys went out of town and Jace drank all your scotch and threw up on that antique gun.  Remember?”

“ _ Traitor _ ,” Jace hisses across the table, but Alec just fixes him with a level stare, and watches as Maryse turns red.  She’d had Jace running army drills in the back yard for a month after that.  It’s still a goldmine when any of them need to get the attention off themselves.

Still, Alec doesn’t dare respond to Magnus’s text til he’s away from the table.  He slides his phone back into his pocket and settles back in his chair to watch his mom rant about underage drinking and ungrateful children and guns worth more than their college tuition, but even as he listens, he’s comfortably aware of the phone in his pocket, and the fact that across the city somewhere, Magnus is thinking of him.

\-----

So Magnus doesn’t actually like Thanksgiving as a concept.  It’s essentially a holiday that celebrates the slaughter and oppression of an innocent people, right?  He has a lot of beef with the pilgrims.  And he’s from Indonesia, anyway, so even after he moved to America he didn’t really celebrate it until his first year with an American foster family.  He's just never got why it's such a huge deal.

What he does like, though, are the traditions he’s build up with his friends since his teenage years.  They don’t cook a big meal or make a performance out of things, but they always spend the day together like a family, and they eat a huge amount of Chinese food for dinner, and they talk about what they’re thankful for, even if Ragnor and Raphael usually struggle to take that part seriously.

“I’m thankful for my job,” says Catarina, as they sit on the floor of Magnus’s apartment living room and wait for their food to come.  “Nursing is tough but I never stop appreciating that I get to help people.”

She says the same thing every year, or at least a variation on the theme.  Magnus personally thinks Cat needs to get a love life, but she seems happy enough as she is.

When it gets to his turn, Magnus doesn’t even have to think about what he’s going to say.  That in itself is odd -- he has a very fulfilling life.  In the past few months alone he’s gotten a great new job, made new friends, helped solve some huge cases, and bought designer lipgloss.  But none of that’s even vying for first place.

“I’m thankful for Alexander’s lips,” he says, and then the doorbell rings and Magnus escapes to go collect their food, so he can pretend not to notice Ragnor and Raphael complaining about him being  _ lovestruck. _

When he’s deposited the frankly alarming amount of Chinese takeout on the coffee table and they’re all sat around it digging in, Raphael brings it back up.

“So, I suppose now you’re going to tell us about this new boy you’re dating?”

“I don’t think you can call him a boy when he’s older than you, darling,” Magnus says, ruffling Raphael’s hair from across the table and getting an indignant squeak in return.  “And the answer to that is no, anyway.  You’re a pack of vultures and I’d rather not have this one ripped to shreds.”

“You know he’s just teasing.”  Catarina steals a piece of Magnus’s chicken and uses it to gesture as she speaks.  “Tell us about him.”

Magnus looks warily around at Ragnor and Raphael, but Ragnor seems far more interested in his rice than the conversation and Raphael is still trying to fix his hair into its perfectly-gelled shell again, so it’s at least slightly safe.

“Fine,” he says, just to Catarina, and considers what to tell them about Alec.  Technically they’ve still only been on one date, the kind of thing Magnus wouldn’t even bother telling his friends considering how much he dates, but Alec is different somehow.  It feels different.  Magnus is slightly overwhelmed by the swiftness with which he has developed an attachment.  “Well, he’s incredibly smart, and incredibly pretty, and incredibly tall.  Muscles for days.  He’s terrible at texting, which is cute.  He’s a detective at the precinct --”

Ragnor snorts, and Magnus immediately shoots Catarina a pointed look.

“There are plenty of nice cops, Ragnor,” Catarina says, but it seems to have set Raphael off as well -- to be fair, most cops and defence lawyers seem to hate each other, but Ragnor’s just a writer so he has no excuse, and they don’t even  _ know _ Alec.

“Fine, fine, I’m done talking about it if you two are going to be children.  I’m not sure where this fascination with my love life is coming from anyway.  Wouldn’t you rather discuss our fascinating careers?”

“I wouldn’t call  _ all _ our careers fascinating,” Raphael snarks.  Magnus looks over to Ragnor.

“Don’t worry darling, he’s just jealous.  Not all of us can be boring old reclusive novelists, or society would fall apart.” 

“Believe it or not,” says Raphael, while Ragnor rolls his eyes, “I was talking about you, Magnus. I don’t know anyone else whose idea of fun is mapping out blood splatter.”

“All that proves is that you don’t know anyone else as fabulous as me. Not surprising, with your social circle.”

Before anyone can say another word, Catarina shoves a carton into each of their faces.

“Stop bickering and eat your noodles,” she says.  “This is a family holiday.”

The thing is, arguing seems to be the central theme of their little family.  Magnus personally wouldn’t have it any other way.  Life without teasing Ragnor or riling up Raphael would just be no fun.

They manage to finish their dinner with no casualties, though certainly not with no more bickering no matter how much Cat might like that.  Magnus tries to make everyone play charades after dinner, but Raphael keeps insisting the only gesture he knows is his middle finger.  Magnus then tries to get everyone to play strip poker, and Raphael goes home.

It’s gotten late without them noticing; Cat leaves too, not long after that, and Ragnor turns in to Magnus’s guest room since he lives outside the city and can’t just leap home on the subway like the others.  Which leaves Magnus alone.  Catarina had helped him clean everything up before she left, but he puts away the dishes and rearranges the sofa they’d pulled out to eat on the floor.  By the time he’s done all that, it’s not quite midnight, but close enough to it that he figures he should go to bed if he wants to be up in time for work tomorrow.

Magnus likes the routine of getting ready for bed.  It’s one of the only times of day that he really feels  _ quiet.   _ Usually he’s alone in the apartment, but having Ragnor asleep in the next room doesn’t really matter, considering how many nights they’ve spent in the same room before.  Magnus undresses in the bathroom, carefully takes off his makeup, washes his hair in the sink to get all the glitter and gel out, rubs it dry with a towel.  Back in his bedroom he takes off all his rings and sets them in a bowl on the dresser, hangs his necklaces on the edge of the mirror.  He does five minutes of yoga in his underwear, really just stretching out all his limbs, and then climbs onto his plush silk bed and plugs in his phone.

Faintly, from across the hall, he suddenly hears a screech.

“Damn cat!  Go bother your owner,” says Ragnor’s muffled voice, and a few moments later Chairman Meow is streaking through the door.  He hops up onto Magnus’s chest, and Magnus can’t help but laugh, scratching behind his fluffy little ears.

“Good boy,” he says.  He spent years carefully training the Chairman to scratch Ragnor whenever he’s near.  Chairman Meow purrs and settles down on his chest properly.

Magnus only debates it for a second before snapping a selfie of the two of them, and sending it to Alec.  He knows it’s Thanksgiving and Alec’s been with his stressful family, but it still feels weird that they haven’t talked all day, and Alec never replied to his ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ text from earlier.

[ Nov.27 -- 23:52 -- To: Alexander <3 ]

_ Festivities are exhausting.  Time for a cat nap! [Attached: IMG3371] _

He settles further down into his cushions and plays a level of candy crush while he waits, but Alec texts back only a few minutes later.

[ Nov.27 -- 23:54 -- From: Alexander <3 ]

_ youre telling me. i could sleep for a week after dealing with my parents _

[ Nov.27 -- 23:54 -- From: Alexander <3 ]

_ you two are beautiful _

Something deep within Magnus turns warm.  He feels like he’s sinking even further into the softness of his bed, cradled by something gentle but solid.

[ Nov.27 -- 23:55 -- To: Alexander <3 ]

_ What a shame I haven’t gotten to see YOUR beautiful face today.  Perhaps I’ll be treated to it at work tomorrow? _

He’s really only angling to find out if Alec is working or if he has another day off, but when his phone buzzes again, it’s treated to the most glorious sight ever -- a selfie of Alec in bed, his face a little smushed against his pillow, hair a mess, half a smile on his charming face.  The picture’s mostly just of his head but there’s a slither of a bare shoulder in it, enough to Magnus to file away  _ Alec sleeps shirtless  _ as the best news he’s gotten all week.  Magnus has to take a moment to catch his breath before he even remembers to read the text.

[ Nov.27 -- 23:56 -- From: Alexander <3 ]

_ i’ll see you tomorrow.  we could have lunch?  [Attached: IMG3372] _

[ Nov.27 -- 23:58 -- To: Alexander <3 ]

_ Sounds wonderful to me.  Sleep well, handsome <3 _

Magnus goes back to scratching Chairman Meow’s ears, and a few long minutes later, he’s almost dropping off to sleep when his phone finally buzzes with a reply.

[ Nov.27 -- 00:01 -- From: Alexander <3 ]

<3

Magnus stares at that little heart for a long time, and tries not to wonder why the hell his own is pounding so loudly, so insistently in the confines of his own chest.  He’s about to fall asleep, but at the same time something inside him is waking up, something that’s been dormant for such a long time he’d almost forgotten about it.  And it’s all Alec Lightwood’s fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next up: actual police work?? wat??? PLUS: malec actually interact again hehee what will happen i wonder if lips will touch?? FIND OUT ON MONDAY (imagine that cheesy cartoon channel 'tune in next week' music is playing here)
> 
> if you leave a comment i'll love you forever!
> 
> [hit me up on tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are twenty whole minutes of monday left, this must be some kind of record for me being on time
> 
> i've just finished reading a 510,000 word game of thrones fic (i know, what is my life, it only took me like 3 days) so i kept almost accidentally using like Ye Olde language in this. i resisted the urge but like. 'alec was most pleased to receive a textular message from magnus, furthering their courtship'. 'ser magnus, forgive me, but your buttocks look most splendid today, if it would please you i would ask leave to suck upon your cock'. imagine if i wrote this whole fic like that. it'd be way better.

The next day, Alec has a rather unproductive morning at work.  It’s Black Friday so the whole world’s gone crazy and the holding cells are more full than usual just from people who’ve been shipped over from the mall, for stealing or trying to rip someone’s hair out over a toaster or something.  It’s making the precinct noisy and even harder to concentrate in than usual.

Alec’s blaming that, but it doesn’t help that he and Jace are on the worst stroke of luck they’ve ever had in terms of cases.  The sarg isn’t putting them on anything new until they solve at least one of their currents, and it’s not just the Jane Doe with the missing hotdog vendor that’s giving them trouble.  There’s another homicide that’s going absolutely nowhere, and some robberies that they really should be able to find more leads on, plus they’re supposed to be keeping up with a prostitution sting being run through vice.  It’s all a bit overwhelming when nothing seems to be moving.

Looking forward to lunch with Magnus is most of what gets him through the morning.  Alec’s been -- there’s no other word for it, he’s been  _ craving  _ a glimpse of Magnus ever since the selfie from last night.  Magnus had looked unfairly radiant.  It was the first time Alec had ever seen him without makeup on and his hair gelled up and his jewellery on.  While Magnus always looks gorgeous, he’d looked it in a softer way without all his usual elements of presentation, and it had kind of made Alec long to curl up with him, to see him bare in a way that wasn’t even sexual, just spoke of some kind of emotional intimacy Alec had been lacking for so long.

Of course, he’d also thought about Magnus bare in the non-emotional way and ended up jerking off in his shower that morning until his toes curled on the tiles and he almost fell over, but that was barely worth mentioning.

When he and Jace finally decided to take their lunch break, Jace goes to find Clary, so Alec doesn’t even have to make excuses to go downstairs.  He grabs his tupperware of last night’s leftovers out of the fridge in the breakroom and then texts Magnus that he’s on his way before practically flinging himself into the elevator.  All he wants is to see Magnus -- so of course, when he opens the morgue doors, he’s immediately face to face with his little sister.

“Alec!” she chirps, looking so happy to see him that he feels kind of guilty.

“Um, I just came down here to have lunch,” Alec says, trying not to let his eyes flicker too obviously to the break room behind her.  Izzy doesn’t seem to notice his awkwardness, just smiles wide and pulls off her latex gloves with a  _ snap. _

“Great!  I was about to take my break anyway.”

It’s hardly what Alec had in mind.  Truthfully he’d been hoping Izzy would have already gone to lunch with Clary and Jace or Lydia or even Meliorn -- anything so she wouldn’t be down here and he could have eaten with Magnus in peace.  It’s not like this lunch was supposed to be quite a date, Alec doesn’t think eating leftover noodles in a morgue break room together could be counted as a date in any universe, but he’d still been hoping it would just be the two of them.  Maybe he could have stolen another kiss.

He can’t say any of that to Izzy, though, so he lets her drag him along to the break room.  Magnus is already in there, fiddling around with the coffee pot and looking as stunning as he always does, but Alec just waves instead of striding over there and trying to make out with him or anything.  Izzy knows the two of them have been on a date, of course, but to her immense and constantly mentioned annoyance Alec has been refusing to give her any details.

“If it isn’t my favourite detective,” Magnus says, voice flirty but eyes soft when they turn to Alec.  Alec’s cheeks heat up.  He feels a bit like he’s melting, which is a ridiculous way to feel considering it’s so cold down here that he still has his scarf on.

Izzy seems amused but doesn’t actually say anything, and the three of them eat their lunches together at the rickety little wooden table in their break room.  Alec doesn’t talk much -- he’s got cases churning in the back of his brain and besides, it’s hard to get a word in between Izzy and Magnus, who are both storytellers at heart and are more outgoing in one lunch than Alec has ever been in his whole life.  He enjoys it, though, just listening along to them gossiping and laughing, appreciating the easy way they get along together which makes him feel warm in his stomach.  He doesn’t think he’d ever really be able to date a guy who didn’t get along with his sister, and he really, really wants to date Magnus.  Or he already is dating Magnus, maybe, in which case he doesn’t want to stop.

When they’ve finished eating, Alec can’t linger too long -- he technically gets longer for lunch but he and Jace have so much work to do at the moment that he knows he should get right back to it.  But he’s only two steps out of the morgue when he gets a text.

[ Nov.28 -- 13:01 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ I’m still dying to taste your cooking, pretty boy.  Are we still on for dinner tomorrow night? _

It’s ridiculous that just getting the message makes Alec grin, even though he’d been speaking to Magnus’s face thirty seconds ago.  Alec keeps heading towards the elevator because he really does need to get back upstairs, but he’s already replying as he walks.

[ Nov.28 -- 13:01 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ u could have asked me this when we were literally just talking to each other.  im sure izzy already knows we’re going on another date, shes not dumb _

[ Nov.28 -- 13:01 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ but yes, definitely.  7?  do you remember where my apt is? _

There’s never any signal in the elevator, so Alec presses the button for the top floor and then has to stare down at the three little  _ typing  _ dots until the doors open and Magnus’s response pops up.

[ Nov.28 -- 13:03 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ As if I had it programmed into my mental GPS, Alexander.  I’ll be there with bells on. _

[ Nov.28 -- 13:03 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ Well, I haven’t actually planned my outfit yet.  There’s even odds that the bells will be metaphorical. _

Alec feels like it’s ridiculous to be so happy when he’s about to go off and think about grizzly crimes that have destroyed people’s lives, but he can’t help grinning as he types back.

[ Nov.28 -- 13:03 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ i’d like to see you in bells _

The response is almost instant this time.

[ Nov.28 -- 13:04 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ And nothing else? ;) _

Alec flushes bright red and shoves his phone into his pocket.  He probably shouldn’t reply to that.

\-----

Jace gets back from his lunch with Clary looking rumpled and swollen-lipped and all too pleased with himself.  Alec wrinkles his nose as soon as he sees him -- they probably had a quickie in the back of the evidence locker, which is just a mental image he really doesn’t need in his life.  

He supposes it could be worse.  One time, before they were detectives, Jace had hooked up with a girl in the back of their cop car and remembered too late about the prisoner locks.  The pair of them had been stuck inside for two hours, half dressed and both pissed at the other, before Alec found them.  He still has the pictures to amuse himself on rainy days, and he’s also happy that at least he never has to worry about what’s going on in their car.  He’s usually scared to sit down anywhere in Jace’s apartment in case it’s had Clary’s naked butt on it in recent history.  Jace really doesn’t seem to be very discerning with his locations when it comes to sex.

(To be honest, the fact that Alec’s romantic history comprises mostly of one night stands means that he’s done things in some pretty weird places too.  But he’s far less obvious about it.  And besides, the straight sex just seems  _ more _ traumatic, somehow.)

“Good lunch?” Jace asks, grinning, when he comes over, and Alec decides not to answer.  Jace’ll probably just tell him something he desperately doesn’t want to hear about in response.

“Let’s go take another look at the Boyers house.”  Crime seems like a much safer option than Jace and Clary’s sex life.

Alec drives, as usual, and they let themselves into the crime scene, which is still taped off -- the burglary was three weeks ago but considering it had happened while the whole family was asleep in their beds and nobody had yet figured out how the perps got in, the family were understandably shaken and had decided to go stay at a hotel for a while.  They could certainly afford to be there for as long as the investigation took, even with Alec and Jace’s current solve speed.  The fact that they were rich as shit was probably the reason they’d been so thoroughly robbed in the first place.

They split up to search the house again, even though they have done countless times already.  At first it seems like nothing is different, and they’re gonna come up as fruitless as every other time they’ve searched.  Alec thinks he could catalog their dining room from memory by now as he grouchily picks up pieces of china from the dresser and inspects them for any missed marks.  

Then something changes.

Alec gets a text from Magnus.

He goes to his phone quickly, and it’s a totally pointless anecdote about Izzy and a bowl of brains that’s frankly a little disgusting to read, but still kind of makes him smile.  His iron-stomach sister is always amusing, and it’s nice that Magnus thinks to text him these little moments.  It’s nice that Magnus is thinking of him at all -- Alec’s eyes go soft at his screen while he smiles, and it’s just a fraction after then, in the space of him looking up from his phone to the dresser with his eyes a different length of focused than they usually are, that he spots it.

“Jace!” he calls immediately, moving to the dining room window.  There’s a thud and he hears Jace calling back to him and then skidding into the room, but Alec doesn’t tear his eyes away from the window.  “Look.”  He beckons Jace over with one latex glove-clad hand.  “This window opens the other way to all the others.”

He turns the handle up to unlock it, but then has to twist it right to get the thing open, instead of left like all the others, and it’s an old house so nothing is really perfectly fitted into frame.

“Turn that again,” says Jace, and Alec does, and they both look at each other with more relief than they have in weeks.

“Someone could get in through this,” Alec says, and there, right there, that’s more of a lead than they’ve had at all so far.

They call in crime techs to dust that whole area again, and Jace calls the family to let them know that they’ve figured out how the break in happened if not who did it yet, and it seems like things might actually be going well.  

Of course, when they get back at the precinct, Jace manages to be causing trouble in the space of two minutes.  Lydia just so happens to walk past them on her way to the break room, and Jace likes winding her up way too much for her own good.

“Hey, Branwell, heard you’re stalled on the Hapstall case -- kind of ironic, no?”

Alec has to hold back a groan.  There’s not particularly bad blood between Jace and Lydia, but it’s no secret that she thinks he’s immature and doesn’t play by the rules enough, and Jace thinks she’s stuck up, and Alec probably has far more in common with Lydia but he’s Jace’s brother and partner and best friend so he doesn’t get a choice in whose side he’s on.  Lydia glares at both of them equally when she responds.

“Heard you’re stalled on  _ all  _ your cases, Wayland.  Kind of pathetic, no?”

Jace looks pissed and probably ready to fire back something that’ll start and interdepartmental war, so Alec drags him off, giving Lydia the most apologetic look he can muster.

“Don’t wind her up and ruin our good day,” he mutters as he forces Jace into his desk chair and piles a few bits of paperwork into his hand.  Jace makes a noise which might possibly be agreeing but could also be some kind of throat infection, and Alec decides to leave him to it.

When he’s settled back at his own desk, thinking about where to go from here with the case, it suddenly occurs to him that he never texted Magnus back.  It seems a little weird to bring up that his silly text helped Alec find a new lead on a case, so he just changes the subject instead.

[ Nov.28 -- 16:44 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ jace is trying to start fights with lydia and i keep having to pull him away.  i dont know what he’s hoping to achieve, if it turned physical she’d definitely win  _

  
It doesn’t really say anything important at all, but he kind of hopes, in his own way, that Magnus will realise it means something.  Even if it just means that Alec thinks about Magnus during all the random little points of his day, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was originally gonna have their next date in it but i realised that scene was gonna get insanely long, so it'll be its own chap! that'll be up on friday. until then, my chickens, feel free to leave me comments if you love me and wanna make me grin for days~~
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DATE TIME OHMYGOLLYGOSH and the longest chap in ages so enjoy
> 
> it's still friday in some timezones so this totally counts as being on time shhhh 
> 
> heads up that there is the beginnings of bow-chica-wow-wow type mature content in this one, so if you don't like that kind of stuff... uh.... skip like the whole second half of this chap...... sorry........

Saturday goes by in a blur.  In theory Alec knows he gets a lot done between waking up at six in the morning and starting to make dinner at six in the evening -- he goes for a run with Jace, cleans his apartment, looks through info about graphic design schools for Max, even finishes a book he’s been trying to read for months.  But by the time seven PM rolls around, it feels like all that’s just been the blink of an eye, and he’s still woefully unprepared for Magnus to arrive.

He wonders if he should be nervous for Magnus to see his apartment.  It’s pretty spartan, with just the bare minimum of furniture he needs and mostly everything gray.   Less interesting than even Magnus’s office at the precinct, let alone what Alec assumes Magnus’s apartment would look like.  That’s far from the worst of his jitters, though.  He feels kind of like he’s waiting for their first date all over again, like he doesn’t already know Magnus at least kind of likes him.

If anything, Alec would have expected Magnus to be a bit late, but the doorbell rings at seven on the dot.  Alec leaps out of his seat in the kitchen and buzzes Magnus up straight away, and then has to awkwardly hover by the door to his apartment while Magnus makes his way up to the third floor.  Alec’s hands feel clammy with nerves, and he wipes them on his jeans.  He’s not particularly dressed up, since they’re only meeting at his place, but he’s put on his best jeans and what he hopes is a semi-nice shirt anyway.  Magnus will no doubt look ten times more amazing, but it’s the thought that counts.

Actually, Alec realises as soon as he’s swung the door open, Magnus looks about a hundred times more amazing.  He’s wearing soft looking purple pants and though he’s still bundled up in his coat it’s undone enough for Alec to see the dark,  shimmering shirt that hangs off the sharp edges of his body deliciously.  As always he’s draped in reams of silver jewellery, too, that catch the light as he moves.  Alec’s breath catches in his throat, and for a moment he can do nothing but stare.

“Hello,” says Magnus, sounding criminally upbeat, and he waves a bottle of wine in Alec’s face.  Alec hadn’t even noticed he was holding one for a moment.

“Hey.”  He almost makes to reach towards Magnus, but at the last moment decides it’d be way too forward to kiss him hello, so just pushes himself into the door frame a little to let Magnus pass.  “You look nice.”

Alec thinks Magnus must get compliments all the time, must barely be able to go two steps in the street without someone checking him out, and yet Magnus still seems to preen a little at the praise.  He smiles up at Alec with an almost overwhelming amount of softness on his face for a whole moment before he finally takes a step into the apartment.

“Well you’re as gorgeous as ever, too.  And it smells almost as good as you look!  Are you going to ruin me for my usual diet of greasy takeaways, Alexander?”

Alec can’t help but grin a little, leading Magnus through the tiny hallway of his apartment to the living room.  The kitchen is through there, too, but Alec figures they’ll eat on the sofa anyway.

“You can, uh, put your coat anywhere,” Alec says.  He feels like he should have a coatrack or something, but he doesn’t.  Magnus doesn’t seem to mind, and quickly shrugs out of his thick peacoat -- it’s the black and silver one he’d worn on their first date, too, and it makes Alec oddly happy to see him wear it again.  Magnus throws it on the back of the armchair and then looks even more gorgeous in just his thin shirt, of course.  Enough buttons are undone at the top to show off most of his collarbone and the smooth skin of his chest, and Alec feels flushed in a way that has nothing to do with having the heating on full.  “Uh, I’m making baked chicken risotto.  It should be ready any minute -- is that okay?”

Alec had texted and asked earlier, of course, and Magnus had claimed to have absolutely no dietary restrictions and be up for trying anything.  Alec was still kind of terrified of making something he’d hate.  But he figures nobody in the world can dislike risotto, and he hasn’t even really made it very spicy, even though his mom would be ashamed of him for keeping it so simple.

“Mmm, that sounds delicious,” Magnus says.  There’s nothing but unconcealed appreciation in his eyes.  “Do you want to open the wine?”

Alec does.  He feels weird and awkward but mostly just far too overexcited to have Magnus in his place, and he figures he’s probably not being a very good host because of all of that, but maybe a drink will calm him down.  Alec doesn’t usually drink, but he thinks he’d do anything to make this night go well.  He _really_ wants this night to go well.

“Sure,” he says.  “I’m just gonna check the food and grab some glasses.  Make yourself at home.”

When Alec returns a few moments later, two glasses of wine in his hands, Magnus is wandering through the living room freely.  He runs his fingers over the spines of the books on the bookshelf, inspects the few photographs that are around, grins at a particularly awkward middle-school portrait of Alec and Izzy that Alec suddenly seriously regrets putting up.  At age thirteen he had braces and spots and really bad hair.  Magnus really doesn’t need to see that.

“I like your apartment,” says Magnus, smiling, and Alec doesn’t realise until then that he’s basically been stood holding his breath in wait of Magnus’s verdict.  He moves over to Magnus, passing him one of the glasses of wine, and feels both far better and far worse being in close proximity to him.

“I know it’s kind of boring,” he says a bit awkwardly.  “Oh, and, uh, I don’t have a proper table.  Hope you don’t mind eating on the floor.”

Magnus laughs.

“I don’t mind at all.  It’ll be fun.”

Then he reaches up and brushes his fingers against Alec’s arm.  There are rings glinting on Magnus’s fingers.  He never wears them at work, presumably because he has to take latex gloves on and off about twenty times a day which would more than a little difficult around his bulky rings, but Alec’s kind of glad of that.  It makes looking at them now all the more special, and he’s somehow more captivated by Magnus’s fingers than ever.  And he _really_ likes Magnus’s fingers.  For one fleeting and incredibly guilty second, Alec wonders what it’d be like to have those fingers wrapped around his cock, whether the warmth of Magnus’s skin next the cool metal of the rings would send shivers up his spine.  He wipes the thought away almost as soon as he thinks it, but not soon enough to keep a blush from spreading across his cheeks just a little.  

“Um,” says Alec, really hoping Magnus doesn’t notice his blush or secretly have the ability to read minds and know Alec is thinking horribly inappropriate things about his innocent touches.  “I, uh, I think dinner’s ready.  Be right back.”

The kitchen’s too warm from the oven for Alec to even be able to cool down, but he takes a few forcefully deep breaths when he’s in there, and it calms him enough to be able to take the risotto out of the oven without trembling.  So that’s something.  

\-----

They finish the bottle of wine between them, and all the risotto, which Magnus makes deliciously seductive noises over and insists it’s the best thing he’s eaten in his life.  That’s a complete exaggeration but Alec’s not sure he’s ever felt so giddy as he does then.  Magnus looks ridiculously beautiful sat cross-legged in front of the coffee table, his limbs all graceful and not awkwardly lanky like Alec’s are when he tries to fold them up.  Magnus probably looks beautiful doing anything, Alec thinks.

They talk all night, never seeming to stumble into a lull in conversation.  They don’t hit on any particularly serious topics, but it still seems a little crazy how well they get on even when it just comes to the little things.  They talk a bit more about how they spent their Thanksgivings, and Magnus’s friends sound fun, if a little grouchy.  Then they talk about college, and Magnus tells stories about a lot of wild drunken exploits that Alec teases him for but actually finds pretty hilarious.  Magnus is an amazing storyteller.  His voice is captivating and he gestures a lot with his hands, like he’s trying to drag the words to life.  A lot of his stories sound like they might be exaggerated or even just plain made up, but Alec doesn’t particularly care.  It’s fascinating just to hear him talk.

Alec finds himself talking too, more than he ever usually does.  He’s not ever very free with his words, always a little too aware of what he’s saying and also just quiet by nature, but Magnus seems so wholly interested when he talks that Alec can’t really stop.  He talks about his siblings some more, his friend Aline who lives far away but is one of his favourite people, a little about Maia.  It all feels so much more tame than anything Magnus has to say, but if Magnus is ever once bored, he gives no indication of it.

The wine probably helps him talk more too, and it probably helps him get the courage to sit so close to Magnus and watch him so unashamedly, and all through the night it sets a kind of lazy buzz in Alec’s stomach.  Something warm and alert at the same time.  He is relaxed but at the same time has a vivid awareness of how close he is to Magnus and exactly how pretty Magnus looks, all his glitter glimmering under the soft light and making him look almost otherworldly.  Alec finds it ridiculous that the universe has let him have Magnus all to himself, even if just for this one evening.

Alec’s nowhere as good at cooking desserts as he is with savoury food, so when they finish the risotto he just brings out ice cream from the freezer.  It’s a nice chocolate one, and Magnus insists they don’t even need bowls, so they just sit on the couch and share it out of the tub.  Magnus moans when he takes his first bite, and the sound hits Alec in all sorts of inappropriate ways.

“I almost got the coffee one,” he says, to try and distract himself.  “Since you made me drink that espresso at about ten O’clock last time.”

The fact that he’s able to say _last time_ in reference to dates with Magnus still seems kind of unreal.  Magnus just grins.

“I told you, it’s traditional.  If you’re that sensitive to caffeine you’ll just have to never get Ethiopian with me again.”

Alec rolls his eyes, but privately thinks that he’d never turn down a chance to go out with Magnus, even if it meant he couldn’t sleep for the rest of his life.

“Well it was probably a good thing anyway, since I had to stay up and sort my brother out after that.”  

Alec’s told Magnus about Max tonight, not the whole story but the basics of his desire to go to art school and how tough their parents are being about it.  Magnus seems sympathetic, but Alec also thinks it might be hard for him to understand quite how acute the pressure is, since Magnus has been without his parents for most of his life.  

“Well, as I said at the time, it’s probably better if you’ve got more _fun_ things to fill your sleepless night with.”

All thoughts of Max fly out of Alec’s head immediately.  He looks at Magnus’s eyes and they’re staring right back at him, wide and wicked, and the feeling is almost too intense to handle.  

They’ve been building up to this all evening, Alec thinks.  Or maybe ever since that rushed kiss in the morgue.  Alec hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Magnus’s lips since then, and no matter how nice talking has been, he suddenly has no interest in it at all.  Pressed close together on Alec’s couch with the city dark outside, the apartment quiet, and having spent all night talking so closely, it suddenly feels like the air is heavier than it should be.  Magnus licks his lips and a sharp tingle shoots up Alec’s body from the tip of his toes to the very top of his head, leaving nothing but heat pulsing through his whole body.

He can’t take it, not with his heart pounding so fast and Magnus looking at him like _that,_ all dark bedroom eyes and damp lips.  Alec shoves the ice cream onto the coffee table.

“Can I --”

“ _Yes,”_ Magnus interrupts, and Alec doesn’t wait another second before grabbing Magnus by the back of the neck and kissing him.

It’s a searing kiss, probably too intense for only a second date but Alec couldn’t care less, and he’s gasping into Magnus’s mouth within seconds.  Magnus doesn’t seem to mind either -- he wraps his arms around Alec and kisses him back without hesitating for a moment, and it’s all just heaven from there.  Magnus is an unbelievable kisser.  Alec kisses with passion, and Magnus does too, but there’s also an overwhelming amount of _skill_ to the way he moves his lips, skill that Alec thinks probably takes a lot of practice.  Alec’s not sure if he should be jealous of everyone Magnus has ever practiced that skill with but in the moment he can feel nothing but gratitude, because Magnus is kissing him like a dream, nipping at Alec’s lips with his teeth, sucking on his tongue, rubbing his hands along the sensitive parts of Alec’s neck and making him squirm all over.

The angle is awkward, sat side-by-side on the couch, so Alec shifts around without pulling his lips away and climbs half on top of Magnus.  He presses Magnus back into the cushions and braces himself above him, trying to angle his body in a way that doesn’t press their dicks together, half because he doesn’t want to push Magnus and half because he’s too turned on for his own good already.  Fuck.  Alec’s never felt so desperate for someone in his life.  He kisses Magnus harder, stronger, with more urgency pulsing through him.  His fingers tangle in Magnus’s soft hair, something he’s sure Magnus would kill him for any other time since he’s certainly messing it up, but neither of them seem to care when Alec uses his grip to angle Magnus’s head and keep him moving with the fast, relentless flow of their kisses.  Little soft noises are coming from the back of Magnus’s throat and Alec can hardly bear them.  He’s half hard in his pants and he’d be almost embarrassed by the eagerness if he couldn’t feel Magnus’s dick pressing up against his own hip, just as interested.

Alec gasps when they pull apart for a moment, desperately trying to catch his breath, and Magnus takes advantage of the opportunity to shove Alec over onto his back and climb on top instead.  He doesn’t lay off to the side of Alec’s body like Alec had done to him, but straddles square on Alec’s hips, and Alec can’t help the choked noise that escapes from his throat.  Magnus’s lips are swollen and his eyes wide and his hair irrevocably messed up like he’s been doing nothing but rolling around in bed for days, and Alec can almost picture them in this exact position but with their clothes hastily discarded and Magnus bouncing up and down on Alec’s cock.  It’s barely more than a fleeting picture in his mind and yet Alec suddenly goes from half-hard to achingly so.  His jeans are uncomfortably tight and having Magnus’s ass pressing down on him through layers of fabric is either making things far worse or far better.

“Magnus,” Alec moans, pulling him down a little roughly with one hand on his waist and the other still gripping at his hair.  Magnus goes easily, though he’s grinning about it, and the second their lips meet again it’s back to all the frenzy of before.  

A few more minutes pass in a blur of increasing desperation, hands sliding up and down each other’s bodies and names being gasped into mouths.  Alec’s almost half convinced he’s dreaming this, it’s too perfect, but the heat and arousal and electricity are all a thousand times too sharp to be anything but real.  When Magnus drags his lips away again Alec almost protests, except then Magnus is just kissing down his throat and it comes out as a choked kind of groan.

Alec’s throat is sensitive, and being kissed there always turns him on more than almost anything else.  Magnus trails his teeth lightly over Alec’s Adam’s apple, and then sucks on it, making Alec gasp; he bites his way up the side of his neck in a way Alec knows will leave hickeys but can’t bring himself to care at all.  Alec’s hand slides down to grip at Magnus’s thigh, twisting in the fabric of his pants, the purple ones that Alec’s pleased to find are as soft to the touch as he always thought they would be from looking.  Magnus sucks particularly hard right under Alec’s jaw until Alec can’t help but moan, and then Magnus shifts back up and kissed him again.  Neither of them can catch their breath, and the rhythm of their kisses is getting faster, more restless.  Alec bites hard on Magnus’s full bottom lip, sucks on it, grips the back of Magnus’s thighs with both hands and never wants to let go.

And then all of a sudden Magnus is sitting up.  He takes his hands and lips with him and leaves Alec blinking up at him in a daze.  He’s out of breath and almost dizzy with desire, and he can’t understand for a second why Magnus has stopped.  Magnus doesn’t give any explanation, just sits there and looks down at Alec appraisingly.

“Mmm,” he says, seeming immensely satisfied by the sight, though Alec dreads to think what a mess he must look right now.  Then he climbs off Alec’s lap.  Alec feels like he just had a limb ripped off or something.

“Where are you --” he starts to ask, forcing himself to lean up on his elbows and look at Magnus, who is grinning far too teasingly.

“Regretfully, I think I need to leave now if I’m going to be a gentleman.”

“What?”  Alec struggles to comprehend him for a moment, still foggy with desperate lust.  “No, you don’t have to be a gentleman.  I am fine with you not being a gentleman.”

Magnus laughs at that, and he’s already shrugging into his coat.  

“Trust me, darling,” he says, and crosses back over to the sofa but just leans over Alec instead of climbing back on top of him.  “When you finally get into these gorgeous designer pants of mine, it’ll be worth the wait.”

Alec looks at Magnus’s ass, and certainly doesn’t doubt that.  Magnus drops one last kiss onto Alec’s lips, soft and with no passion in it at all but still enough to make Alec tremble, and then he’s leaving, saying that he’ll see himself out and will text Alec when he gets home.  As soon as the apartment door closes, Alec collapses back onto the sofa, and for a minute he can do nothing more than just stare up at the ceiling in a daze.  

Magnus Bane is going to be the death of him.

Eventually Alec wills his erection away enough that he can get up and dazedly put the ice cream back in the freezer and wash up the dishes, but after that, he heads straight to bed.  It’s not even very late and he’s not overly tired, but despite how much he’s tried to calm down, he still feels desperately turned on.  

He respects Magnus’s right not to sleep with him if he doesn’t want to, of course -- it might even be for the best considering jumping straight into bed has never worked out particularly well in any of Alec’s previous relationships.  But that doesn’t change how ridiculously much Alec wants him.  As he gets changed for bed he tries to remember if he’s ever been so attracted to anyone, going back through a mental list of boyfriends and particularly hot one night stands, but even though he’s never had any complaints before, he’s sure he’s never felt like _this._ Like it would only take a look from Magnus to set him off.

Alec never likes to jerk off in bed, the mess so much less convenient than just doing it in the shower, but that night he’s got a hand inside his boxers the second he climbs between the sheets.  He pulls at his cock a little too frantically, thinking of everywhere Magnus touched him and missing the weight of Magnus’s ass pressing down over his hips, and he comes within minutes, his back arching and hips desperately thrusting up into his hand as hard as he can manage.  When he collapses back into his pillows, he suddenly feels exhausted, and he’s about to drop off when his phone buzzes.  Alec wouldn’t even bother to check it if he thought it was anyone other than Magnus, but as the case may be he reaches out one tired arm and tugs it off the bedside table.

[ Nov.30 -- 1:14 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Home safe!  Thank you for a wonderful evening, Alexander.  If being a cop doesn’t work out you certainly have professional chef in your career options.  Off to bed now.  I hope you’re curled up in yours, and doing something fun ;)_

Alec snorts, unable to keep himself from feeling a warm kind of fondness spread through his chest even at Magnus’s suggestive words.  He’s such a flirt.  Besides, Alec already finished his something fun -- though wondering whether Magnus will be touching himself too when he gets in bed almost gets Alec turned on enough for a second go.  Not quite, though, and he’s tired enough that his inhibitions are down so he taps out a response he thinks Magnus, in all his flirtiness, would be proud of.

[ Nov.30 -- 1:15 -- To: magnus bane ]

_would have been more fun if you were here :P_

 

[ Nov.30 -- 1:15 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Well with an image like THAT in my mind, I’ll certainly have sweet dreams!  Sleep well, Alexander <3 _

[ Nov.30 -- 1:15 -- To: magnus bane ]

_sleep well, magnus_

  
Alec tucks his phone under his pillow, one hand holding onto it fondly, and he falls asleep with a smile still on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well i promised nobody would interrupt them, but i didn't promise magnus wouldn't do it himself! but never fear, it shant be long til he swoons into alec's big strong arms and they do the do for real
> 
> i always feel woefully bad at writing makeouts or anything even half smutty so let me know if you liked it or if you have any tips??? also da next chap will be up on monday!
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nothing about this chapter turned out how i was intending it to but??? yanno??? that's the way the wind blows i guess
> 
> also this is super long. like i thought last chap was long but nah this is the longest chap yet, for absolutely no reason that i can think of
> 
> i should really stop only writing this fic at 3am

There’s only one thing Alec notices when he looks in the mirror the next morning.

Hickeys.

He has big, splotchy, purple hickeys trailing from the underside of his jaw all the way down to his collarbone.  It looks like his neck has been in fight with a biker gang.  He rubs a finger across one of them, leaning closer to the mirror and turning his head with mild horror to inspect himself from another angle.

He can’t deny that it’s a little thrilling, oddly, to press his fingers into the sensitive marks, and to remember how he got them.  Alec blames the fact that he’s still half asleep and the slightest bit drowsy from the wine last night for what he does next.  He grabs his phone off the counter and takes a photo of himself in the mirror, just from his mouth to his shoulders, all his hickeys and morning stubble and still slightly swollen red lips on display.  Then he sends it to Magnus.

[ Nov.30 -- 8:19 -- To: magnus bane ]

 _is there something u need to tell me?  like, maybe youre secretly a vampire perhaps??_ [Attached: IMG0612]

He doesn’t get a reply straight away, but he knows Magnus likes sleeping in on the weekends so it doesn’t bother him.  He sets his phone back down and goes about his morning routine like he always does, shaving and brushing his teeth and the going to put the coffee on and find breakfast.  It’s comforting after all the excitement of last night.  Alec is a creature of routine, and he likes doing things the same way every day, at the same times and in the same order.  

Alec likes stability, and he likes to have purpose, and he likes to know exactly what’s going to happen to him in any situation.   Almost everyone around him thinks he’s crazy for all of that, or that it makes him boring, but for Alec he just finds that it keeps him grounded.  He supposes Aline appreciates organisation, but she still has more of a wild side than him when she gets worked up.  And apart from that, everyone he would really class as a friend -- Maia, all three of his siblings, Clary if he’s forced to admit it -- seem to live by impulses and unpredictability.  

As he pulls his toast out of the toaster, Alec wonders which of those categories Magnus falls into.  At first glance, and second, and third, and probably a few more after that, he seems pretty wild -- he’s certainly told enough crazy stories about his travels or his time in college for Alec not to doubt that Magnus has a pretty wide impulsive streak.  But at the same time, there’s something grounded about him.  He’s organised, and on top of his life, and last night he’d admitted to Alec that while he loves to party and go on adventures, he considers himself a boring domestic at heart.  He apparently spends most evenings narrating television shows to his cat.  Somehow that admission had managed to charm Alec even more than all the thrilling and exaggerated anecdotes put together.

He’s only a year older than Alec, but somehow Magnus seems more mature in a way, like he holds a degree of internal calmness, of solidity in himself, that’s impossible to fake.  He’s so confident but not in a way that’s arrogant, or even really very attention seeking.  Being around Magnus makes Alec feel -- calm, somehow, even though he’s usually ten kinds of nervous as well.

It’s probably way too early to be thinking all these things.  Way too early to be assuming that he knows Magnus at all, on anything more than a surface level.  But Alec can’t help feeling like they have some kind of connection that never usually happens after just two dates.  It’s not like he’s fallen in love yet, but he’s fallen into contentment, maybe.  He’s fallen into all the places he thinks Magnus fits so well in his life.

As the morning stretches on, Alec keeps on feeling both relaxed and distracted, in a way he never usually does.  He settles down on the couch to read a criminology journal, but the whole time his fingers keep drifting to his neck and brushing over where he knows his hickeys are.  It’s gone eleven and he’s hardly read anything when Magnus finally texts back.

[ Nov.30 -- 11:12 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Even if you’re trying to get back at me for teasing you last night, that image was a hell of a thing to make me wake up to.  I’m fanning myself like a Victorian lady over here!_

Alec laughs.  He wasn’t trying to get back at anything -- it’s not like he’s mad at Magnus for leaving last night, it was probably the more sensible course of action.  But even Alec has to admit that he’s kind of flattered.  He never knew a photo of his neck could count as teasing.

\-----

Alec takes pre-emptive action to avoid his siblings knowing more than he’d like about exactly what he and Magnus got up to on their date.  On Monday the hickeys are still bright and angry, but it’s Jace’s day off and Alec manages to avoid any trips down to the morgue so Izzy won’t see him.  This unfortunately also means avoiding Magnus, but they text all day, and Magnus finds the reason behind Alec’s absence unfairly hilarious.

By Tuesday the bruises have faded enough that the ones on his jaw aren’t really noticeable, and he keeps his scarf and jacket on all day to cover up the worst one, which is right on top of his Adam’s apple.  Jace is back then, and they spend most of the day in and out of the precinct or their robbery crime scene, which they finally have more evidence on.  Jace doesn’t seem to find it odd that Alec keeps his scarf wound all the way up all day.  It’s December and the precinct has shoddy heating and Alec’s always too cold, anyway, like his body doesn’t retain heat somehow.  When Jace first came to live with them, back when they were kids, he would sometimes have nightmares and end up climbing into Alec’s bed looking for comfort, but even then he complained about Alec’s icy feet.  

Alec supposes he’s lucky he didn’t meet Magnus in the summer when he couldn’t wear a scarf, because if Jace _did_ see the hickeys, Alec would definitely never hear the end of it.  Jace would be positively gleeful.  They’re brothers and best friends and it’s not like Alec ever really gets annoyed by it anymore, but teasing Alec is one of Jace’s favourite hobbies, and by this point it’s like reflex for Alec to try and keep his love life to himself.  Jace has never met any of Alec’s -- well, he’s never met anyone Alec’s really dated, before.  Even when he’s had relationships that have lasted a few months Alec’s always managed to hide them from his family.

So he makes it through Tuesday without Jace even mentioning anything other than their cases and when he next wants to go the gym.  Easy enough.  Or it should be, except that at the end of the day, right as Alec is shutting down his computer and thinking he’s gonna manage to escape with his privacy in tact, Jace sidles over and says:

“Hey, can you go ask Izzy if she’s ready yet?  Clary wants us all to head over to the bar together.”

Alec is absolutely blank for three long seconds.  Then he remembers.

 _Shit._ Simon’s show.  Clary had invited them all months ago -- his band were playing at a bar where people actually went to listen to the music, and it was apparently all very exciting.  Alec’s seen Simon’s band before, but only opening for other acts, or playing the main set in dive bars to mostly people who were too drunk to realise whether there was music playing or not.  

He tries not to let it show on his face that he’d forgotten, but judging by Jace’s smug look, it must be obvious.  It’s not that Alec had any other plans tonight or anything.  He just hates forgetting stuff -- and usually he never does, keeps himself far too organised to even get close.  He thinks it’s probably Magnus’s fault that his head is all over the place lately.

“Uh, right,” he says, quickly abandoning his desk.  “I’ll go check.  Meet you and Clary in the lobby.”

He grabs his jacket, figuring he won’t need to come back upstairs, and quickly heads down to the basement.  If he’s honest, he never minds an excuse to go down there these days, and Jace probably knew that when he asked.  It’s not like they couldn’t have just texted Izzy.

But Alec hasn’t seen Magnus since their date, and apparently two and a half days is a long time for him now, because he’s already found himself missing Magnus’s face.

Magnus isn’t in the morgue when Alec gets down there, and neither is Izzy.  Alec wonders if he should feel bad that he’s much more disappointed by Magnus’s absence than his own sister’s. He quickly crosses the room and pokes his head into their kitchen, which is empty too, and then checks Magnus’s office.

Ah, there he is.  Just shrugging into a floaty red jacket, Magnus looks kind of like a vision, and Alec embarrassingly has to take a deep breath before he can announce his presence.

“Hey,” he says when he has a hold of himself, and Magnus immediately turns around, face lighting up.

“Alexander!” He crosses the two steps to the doorway, drops his arms loosely around Alec’s neck, and leans in to kiss him gently on the lips.  It’s a tiny kiss that only lasts a second, but in his surprise, Alec feels like it stretches on for an eternity.

Apparently they’re at the ‘kissing hello’ stage, now.  Alec is completely and totally fine with that.

“Hey,” he says again, and then blushes a little when he remembers he already said that.  “Uh, have you seen my sister?”

“I believe she just ran to the ladies room.” Magnus pulls his arms back from Alec’s neck, much to Alec’s disappointment, but stays standing pleasantly close.  “She should be back in a minute.  Do you need her for something?”

“Just seeing if she’s ready to go.  Clary’s roommate’s band is playing at a bar, we’re supposed to be going.”

“Sounds fun.”  Magnus’s voice is light, and cheerful but rather unaffected by Alec’s answer, so Alec has no idea where the idea suddenly hits him from.  Considering how much he’s trying to keep his siblings separate from his dating life it is a truly, astoundingly bad idea, and yet with Magnus stood all close and smelling like warm sandalwood, Alec finds his mouth is speaking before his brain can help it.

“Do you want to come?”  He immediately regrets the way he blurts it out, all fast and decisive, and stumbles to backtrack.  “I mean -- you don’t have to, they’re not even a good band or anything, I don’t know why you’d want to, I’m only going ‘cus Clary’s making us, and you probably have plans, don’t change your plans or anything, my friends are all crazy anyway so it’s probably better if you didn’t even --”

“Alexander.”  There’s laughter in Magnus’s voice, and he presses the soft pad of his index finger into Alec’s bottom lip.  Though it’s barely a brush of a touch, it sends a jolt of electricity through Alec that has his words drying out in an instant.  “I would love to come and watch your friend’s band with you.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call Simon my friend,” Alec says, rather weakly, because Magnus is still poking at his lip and it’s distracting.  Magnus lets out a soft snort of laughter.  “You really want to come?  You don’t have to.”

“I really do.  So long as you want me there.”

“I do,” says Alec, though it’s half a lie.  Well, it’s certainly not a lie that he wants to spend the evening with Magnus.  It’s just that he doesn’t trust anyone in his social circle not to embarrass him so much he’ll never be able to see Magnus again.

Apparently it’s a risk he’s going to have to take, because just then they hear the sound of the morgue door shutting outside.  Alec quickly pulls back from Magnus’s hand and heads out of his office, Magnus following right behind him.  Sure enough, Izzy’s just gathering up her stuff.

“Alec!” she says, sounding both happy and amused to see him.  “Having fun in there?”

Alec flushes a little but doesn’t bother responding.

“Uh, Magnus is gonna come to the show,” he tells her, and then stands there awkwardly for one silent second as she looks overjoyed before he shoves her out the door.  “C’mon, let’s go.”

\-----

Jace is acting like Alec bringing Magnus to this bar is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.  The whole walk over he doesn’t stop interrogating Magnus, no matter how many times Alec tries to sic him on Clary or threatens to push him into oncoming traffic.  And it’s ridiculous, because Jace and Magnus have met dozens of times at work, but Jace is doing this Gruff Father voice and asking Magnus about his _intentions_ and Izzy won’t stop laughing about it all so she’s no use.  Clary seems kind of sympathetic to how embarrassed Alec is, but she doesn’t do much more than pat him on the arm and then stifle a giggle herself.  Some help.

The only silver lining is that Magnus seems to be pretty amused by it too.  Maybe Alec’s the only one who cares about his own dignity.

By the time they reach the bar, Magnus has dutifully listed off his impressive college history and his job -- as if everyone there didn’t already know it, but Jace is having far too much fun -- and has even promised to have Alec home by midnight, despite the fact that Alec lives alone and has nobody in the world to check if that happens.  It’s all ridiculous, and Alec finds it quite a relief when they step into the bar and warm-up band are playing too loudly for their whole group to carry on a conversation anymore.

Alec vaguely recognises Simon’s bandmates inspecting a poster on the wall, which is advertisng the performers for the night.  Last time he was dragged to see them play they’d been called something about pandas, and the time before that it’d been Champagne Enema -- something Alec remembers vividly from how traumatising he found the thought -- but today they’re apparently billed as Ambidextrous Biscotti.  They’re actually pretty good, when they manage to tune their instruments right, but Alec thinks they’d have a bit more success if they could actually stick to a name.

“I hope you like weird indie music played on out of tune guitars,” he says to Magnus, as they follow Izzy over to a table at the front.  Magnus beams, and knocks his shoulder into Alec’s a little.

“You should do their publicity,” he says, quite loudly and happily.  “You obviously have so much enthusiasm.”

Honestly, Alec doesn’t mind their music, but he still finds himself grinning back at Magnus and rolling his eyes as they make their way through the room.

The bar’s not totally crap or anything, but it’s a bit grungy, and dark enough that Alec feels fine about taking off his scarf and jacket when he sits down.  Nobody’s gonna notice his hickeys in this light.  Magnus takes a seat next to him, pushing his chair as he sits down so that it slides closer to Alec’s with an obnoxious _squeak_ against the floorboards, and they’re sat close enough that if Alec let his legs drop open a bit, their knees would be touching.  He can feel Magnus’s warmth radiating out; he’s like a ball of constant heat in stark contrast with how Alec’s always cold.

It’s nice.

Jace flings himself down across the table, and Alec makes the mistake of catching his eye.  Jace frantically gestures to Magnus, and then presses his hands together to mimic how close they’re sitting, and then gives a huge double thumbs up and a wink, and then starts pretending to make out with the air.  Magnus is blatantly watching so Alec’s not sure how Jace thinks his silence counts as being subtle.

“Jace, stop it,” Clary hisses, slapping Jace on the arm.  He immediately stops, frowning at her and rubbing his arm.  It hadn’t been hard but Jace always loves to play up the sympathy.

“Hey, what’d I do?” he protests.

“Stop embarrassing Alec.”  Alec feels like a kindergartener, listening to his parents fight over him in front of his friends.  Somehow Clary reprimanding Jace feels even more embarrassing than Jace’s stupid hand signals in the first place

“Please ignore everything they say,” he mutters to Magnus, who just seems delighted by how much Alec is blushing.

A minute later Clary gets a text from Simon, and goes off to try and find him.  Alec feels slightly terrified of leaving Magnus alone with Jace and Izzy, but he also wants to buy Magnus a drink before the music starts, so he excuses himself and finds the bar as quickly as he can.  It’s not too busy and he usually gets served pretty fast at bars anyway, because he’s taller than everyone and vaguely angry looking.  He gets himself a coke and Magnus the strange sounding cocktail he’d asked for, and then heads back to their table.

Magnus still seems to have all his limbs, which is good.  Alec likes Magnus’s limbs.  And he still looks amused, so maybe Alec’s siblings haven’t completely scared him off.  Still, Alec’s happy to be back where he can monitor the lot of them, and he doesn’t miss the way they all stop talking when he gets there and slides the drinks onto the table.

“Mmm, thankyou,” Magnus says as he takes a sip, and that pleased little hum is all too reminiscent of the way he’d sounded on Saturday night with his lips around Alec’s neck, so Alec’s already flushing under his collar as he falls back into his seat.  

\-----

Alec doesn’t really know the other two guys in Simon’s band, but they take up residence at the bar while they’re waiting for their set, so he doesn’t feel bad about not remembering their names even though he’s met them a dozen times by now.  Simon, on the other hand, comes over to hang out at their table before he goes on stage, and ends up sat next to Magnus.  Alec doesn’t realise until the two have started speaking that it’s the first time he’s ever witnessed Magnus speaking to someone other than Alec or Izzy in a social setting.  He’s so different at work, and though Magnus is always so outgoing and good with his words, it seems like his snarky side comes out in full force when he’s socialising.  Simon kind of annoys Alec, even though they’re probably technically friends, so Alec finds himself grinning into his coke as he listens to their conversation.

“So, Sam --” Magnus begins, even though he’s been introduced to Simon enough that he must know his name.

“Uh, it’s Simon.”

“-- do you work at the precinct too?” Magnus continues as if he hadn’t been interrupted at all.

“Oh, no.  I could never do anything to do with the cops, I faint any time I see blood!  But I know everyone ‘cus I’m Clary’s roommate.  I’m the in-house accountant at a record company.”

Magnus raises his eyebrows and pulls his head back a little, in a sort of _sheesh_ expression.  

“Sounds thrilling,” he says, all deadpan, and Alec has to laugh.  Simon only looks mildly put out.  He’s used to people making fun of his job.

Alec thinks it’d be funny to hear them talk longer and see what else Magnus makes fun of, but a moment later Simon gets dragged away to go tune up, the band’s set about to start.  As he stands up he knocks the table a little, and Alec, feeling a sudden moment of bravery, uses the jostling of everyone’s chairs as an excuse to drop one of his hands onto Magnus’s thigh.  

Magnus looks over at him then, amusement in his eyes, but says nothing.  He finishes his cocktail in a few more sips, sets down the glass, and then his own hand falls as well, coming to rest right on top of Alec’s.

Alec blushes, and looks straight ahead, trying to pretend that he’s listening to Clary and Izzy’s conversation.  It feels so odd, somehow, that amongst the noise of the bar -- drunken shouting, the clink of glasses, the screech of amplified guitar as the band tunes up -- something so _quiet_ can be happening.  But as he slowly turns his hand over and lets Magnus loosely intertwine their fingers, that’s just how it feels.  Quiet.  Calm.  Like everything else has become muffled and he’s able to focus on nothing but the hot pulsing of his own heartbeat and the sweetness that hits him everywhere Magnus touches.

Magnus shifts his chair even closer and leans his whole body a little into Alec’s side.

When Simon’s band start playing, Alec really does try to focus on the music, but he’s not doing a very good job.  Conversation has died down at their table, since Clary’s turned her whole attention to supporting Simon, whooping and clapping every time he finishes a song, and Izzy is joining in with her, and Jace is mostly focusing on seeing how many beers he can drink.  With all of their attention on the stage, Alec turns to Magnus, and finds himself grinning when Magnus immediately returns the look.  Sat so close together, their faces are almost touching.

They don’t talk, but Alec is still rather too distracted to pay attention to the band after that.

Magnus goes and gets them another couple of drinks after a few songs, though Alec opts for something non-alcoholic again, but as soon as he sits back down he slides his hand back into Alec’s.  Somehow the time flies away without Alec noticing, too busy thinking about Magnus’s soft touch and how it’s making his heart beat and how he hopes his palms aren’t sweating, so before he knows it the band are halfway through their set.  Clary goes up to talk to Simon on the stage when the band takes a quick break, and suddenly everyone’s attention seems to be back at the table.  Alec instantly knows it’s gonna be bad from the look on Jace’s face.

“You two are holding hands under the table, aren’t you,” Jace says, grinning wide as he stares at the space where Alec and Magnus’s arms disappear out of sight.  Alec opens his mouth to stammer some kind of denial, or possibly tell Jace that it’s none of his business anyway, but Izzy beats him to it with a squeal.

“Oh my god,” she says, and all of a sudden she flings her torso across the table, displacing several empty glasses, to catch a glimpse of where their joined hands rest on Magnus’s thigh.  Her eyes go wide and happy, and Alec almost doesn’t mind the teasing that he knows is gonna come when he realises he’s the one who’s put that thrilled expression on his little sister’s face.  “Oh my _god!_  You guys are too cute, you’re just _too_ cute.  I can’t believe a couple months ago I was just teasing Alec about how much of a crush he had on you, thinking he would _never_ do anything about it, and now you’re holding _hands_ and don’t think I haven’t noticed that big ass hickey, Alec --”

“Now now Isabelle,” Magnus thankfully interrupts, though not quite soon enough because Jace has perked up and is desperately trying to launch himself forwards as well to inspect Alec’s neck.  “I wouldn’t want your brother to blush so hard his head explodes.  I’m rather fond of it sitting on the top of his neck like that.”

“Alec and Magnus, sitting in a tree,” Jace chants gleefully, having finally spotted the fading bruises against Alec’s neck in the low lighting.  “K-I-S-S-”

“Would you shut up?” Alec looks around for something to throw at Jace, but there’s no healthy middle ground between napkin or glass.

“Ooh, I’ve never made out in a tree before,” says Magnus at the same time.  “Sounds adventurous.  Alexander, shall we go and find one?”

Despite himself, Alec laughs, and then immediately turns red.  Across the table, Jace and Izzy throw their arms around each other, laughing too.

“Our big giant brother is all grown up!”

“Making plans to go hook up in inappropriate places and everything, I’m just so _proud_!”

“I hate you both,” Alec says, but he thinks the grin still on his face might stop it from sounding very convincing.

\-----

When Simon’s band finishes their set, Alec and Magnus decide to leave.  Clary and Jace and Izzy are staying to drink some more -- something Alec considers a terrible idea since they all have work in the morning, but he just makes Jace promise to get Izzy home safely and then leaves them to it without much more judgement.  Usually he’d probably stay just to be the sober voice of reason who got them all home, but tonight, he’d rather be with Magnus.  And they don’t really need him anyway.

“Get some, brother!” Jace calls out when Alec and Magnus stand up and make to leave.

“I’m _walking_ him to the _subway,”_ Alec insists, but Jace still wolf whistles as they head to the door, so he’s probably gonna believe what he wants.

Alec does only walk Magnus to the subway, though.  They hold hands on the way there, and Magnus talks about which songs he’d liked but how he’d still really rather listen to Taylor Swift or Nicki Minaj, and Alec’s never felt so warm on a New York December night.  Something about Magnus’s whole presence just seems to radiate warmth, in a way that’s far more than just physical.

The subway station arrives too soon, but Alec is too reluctant to let go of Magnus when they get there.  Magnus doesn’t seem to be in any sort of hurry either, so Alec keeps a hold of his hand and they stand there for a minute, a point of stillness amongst the hurrying people who move up and down the street.

“Sorry if they were all a pain in the ass tonight,” Alec says, partly because he feels like he should apologise for that but mostly because he wants to drag out the time til Magnus has to go.  “Especially Jace.  I think he still thinks we’re in middle school and should know everything about who the other’s dating.”

“He was fine.”  Magnus is smiling up at Alec, eyes warm and sparkling in the light of the city streets.  He’s so beautiful Alec can barely stand it.  “Funny, even.  It’s obvious he’s only teasing because he loves you.”

Alec knows that, but he’s overwhelmingly glad that Magnus understands it too.

“What did he say to you while I was at the bar?”

“Shockingly, only nice things,” Magnus says, reaching up and smoothing back Alec’s hair.  “It seems your siblings think you’re rather smitten with me.”

His voice sounds teasing, but there’s a sincere kind of happiness on Magnus’s face as he says that.  It seems almost -- almost _shy._

“Wonder where they got that idea,” says Alec, and he takes one of Magnus’s hands in both of his, and kisses him.  It’s a sweet kiss but there’s intensity to it, not like any of the few others they’ve shared before.  Their first kiss had been too rushed to build up much of any kind of feeling, and their makeout on Saturday had included a lot of different kisses but they’d all just been searing hot, and Magnus had chastely kissed him hello earlier, but this isn’t any of that.  It’s something a little almost devastating, and Alec presses into Magnus, crushing their bodies together, dragging one of his hands up to cup Magnus’s jaw.

They kiss slow and thorough and burningly intense, lips moving to a constant rhythm like the back and forth pull of the tides, and they’re holding hands the whole time.  Alec can hardly stand it.  He wishes they weren’t in the street, wishes more than anything that he didn’t have to be up for work in six hours.  All he wants to do is invite Magnus home and kiss him for hours and worship his whole freaking body.

But he can’t do that, so after a few long minutes, he forces himself to pull away.  They’re both breathing a little heavy, and for a moment they just stare into each other’s eyes.

“You should get your train,” Alec says, feeling almost physically pained when he has to step back from Magnus, letting him lean back up off the wall Alec had pressed him into.

“I should,” Magnus agrees.  But he doesn’t leave for another long moment.  Instead he reaches up and kisses Alec one more time, smiling.  “Thank you for tonight, Alexander.  You know, I’ve dated a lot of people, but -- well, it’s been a very long while since someone wanted me to meet their friends.  I think I tend to be a little much for people.  So it means more than you know.”

Sometimes Alec is taken aback by how much sadness seems to live in Magnus’s eyes, even when they’re smiling, even when they should look happy.

“Of course I want you to meet my friends.  I mean, Simon isn’t exactly a friend, and you already knew everyone else, but -- I want you to meet Maia too, sometime, and Aline when she's in town.  Uh, if you want.  I mean I know this only our third date but --”

“Feels like more, doesn’t it?” Magnus says, smiling.  Alec had been about to go off on a whole long tangent about taking things slow and not wanting to pressure Magnus to do anything too soon how this was probably a really bad third date to take him on since they barely got any time to themselves and a million other things, but he stops himself, and just looks down at Magnus instead.

“Yeah,” he agrees.  “It does.”

It feels ridiculously sappy, but for another long moment they just stare into each other’s eyes.  Then Magnus finally drops his hand, steps back, takes a deep breath.

“Well, off I go,” he says, wiggling his fingers in a wave.  “I’ll text you when I get home? Good night, Alexander.”

“Yeah,” Alec agrees, slightly weak at the knees as he watches Magnus turn to walk away.  “Good night.”

Magnus grins over his shoulder, and then turns down the steps to the subway platform.  Alec stands there and watches until the moment he drops out of sight.  Then he turns around, trying to ignore the giddy smile that won’t leave his face, and begins his own walk home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> COMING SOON (*dramatic cinema music*): actual case work! a killeerrrrr revealed! is trouble brewing for alec and jace? what exactly is the lightwood parents's ~~mysterious~~ past?? will i manage to write anything that isn't solely about malec being besotted cuties who barely remember what their jobs are or what this au is supposed to be about? TUNE IN THIS FRIDAY TO FIND OUT!
> 
> leave me a comment and lemme know what you thought of this chap!!
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i legitimately thought yesterday was thursday and today was friday and my update was totally on time. that's really worrying. did i... lose a day??? we may never know
> 
> fun fact: in my original plan this was chapter five of this story. i have somehow added ten extra chapters of NOTHING HOW DID I DO THAT (also psa that this will def not be 25 chapters anymore, i'm just leaving that number there to make myself feel better about how obscenely long it's getting)

On Thursday night, Alec gets dragged to watch a movie marathon at Maia’s apartment.  Usually they go out somewhere when they want to meet up, since Maia has three roommates, and she thinks Alec’s neighborhood is unnecessarily dangerous. But tonight, all her roommates are miraculously away for various reasons, and she wants a reason to celebrate having the place to herself (which happens with about the same frequency as a lunar eclipse).

Alec cooks them dinner in her kitchen, Maia carefully hovering around him and trying to help.  He tries to talk her through everything he’s doing.  She’s been asking him to teach her to cook for a few months now, but they’re both so busy that it’s only culminated in a couple of skype sessions where he had to explain to her how to turn on her oven and why she shouldn’t eat raw chicken.  She does better with him actually there to guide her, though, and he certainly thinks there's hope for her yet -- she's not another Izzy.

They eat their dinner and watch a couple of bad action movies, making fun of all the terrible stunts that both their lifelong experiences of proper martial arts have made ridiculous.  But after they're done with that, he stays too late, losing track of time like usual when she finally convinces him to tell her about Magnus.  Maia has always been good at bluntly demanding the things she wants to be told, and not really giving Alec a choice.

It’s actually nice, talking about Magnus to someone who doesn't know him.  Alec hasn’t talked to anyone about Magnus much at all, if he’s honest.  He’s too used to keeping everything about his dating life to himself.  But when he has it’s been to either Izzy or Jace, both of whom have their own opinions and experiences of Magnus; with Maia, though, he actually has to force himself to find the words for it all.  She doesn’t know what Magnus looks like, or the effortless way he exudes confidence just from standing there, or the dazzling way he dresses without somehow ever seeming silly, or how captivating he is even when he's telling a story that would be completely dull from anyone else.  

Alec talks a lot longer than he probably should about all of that, and by the end, she looks at him bluntly and says, "you're so in love".  He knows it hasn’t gone that far yet, but still, it’s gone far enough that he keeps talking about it until after midnight.  It’s one in the morning by the time he gets back to his own apartment, and he has to be up at five thirty.  He sends one quick text to Magnus about his evening and then drops right into bed, falling asleep within minutes.

“You look terrible,” says Jace happily when Alec turns up at his desk later that morning.  “Magnus keep you up all night?”

Alec grabs a file off the desk and half-heartedly swats Jace with it.

“Maia kept me up all night,” Alec says, just as Raj walks up to them.

“The hot lawyer?  Nice _.”_ He holds up his hand for a high five.  Raj absolutely knows Maia isn't a lawyer and also knows that Alec is as gay as a double rainbow, so Alec’s not sure what he’s trying to achieve with that comment.  He ignores Raj’s hand until it’s awkwardly lowered again.  “Uh, okay, Sarg wants to see you.  Both of you.”

Alec and Jace look at each other, and they both have the exact same expression in their eyes.

That doesn't sound good.

\-----

Alec’s just a little too tall for the chairs in the briefing room, and with his knees to high up and Jace fidgeting by his side while Hodge stares at them from across the table, it feels like being twelve years old and called to the principal’s office again.  

“Do either of you recognise the name Valerie Bridger?” Hodge asks.  His voice is quiet but tense, and Alec’s stomach is churning from unease as he wonders what the hell this is about.  They both shake their heads.  “How about Teresa Kim?  Ruby-Jane Adelstein?  Ring any bells?”

There’s a few long, horrible moments of silence.

“What’s this about, sarg?” Jace asks finally, and the quiet of the briefing room is suddenly sliced through by a loud slap as Hodge throws a thick manila folder onto the table in front of them.

“Look.”  His voice comes out almost like a threat.

Alec reaches for it before Jace does, flips open the file and spreads out the papers inside.  And then they just -- look at them.  And Alec’s stomach turns.

It’s not like he’s never seen photos of murdered women before.  He’s a detective in New York.  He’s had his hands inside cadavers before.  It’s not the fact that they’re dead that’s bothering him so much he feels like his head is spinning.

“These look just like our Jane Doe,” he says, almost to himself.  And they do.  Not identical by any means -- one of them is Asian, one a lot skinnier than the others, but in some ways.  Yeah.  They all have long black hair, just like the Jane Doe with the disappearing witness that him and Jace have been working for weeks, and they’re all wearing pink dresses, just like her.  And the wounds are the same.  Not a lot of them, but what’s there is gruesome.

There’s no doubt in Alec’s mind that this is a pattern.

“These are all out of our jurisdiction,” Jace protests, but his voice sounds kind of feeble even to Alec.

“It’s been all over the news.  And you’re _detectives._  Supposedly some of our best, though I’m having a hard time believing that right now.  This is not the kind of pattern that should have taken you weeks to notice.”

Alec wants to speak up, wants to defend them, but he finds that he can’t think of anything to say.  He can’t remember if either of them looked into the idea of this case being related to any others.  They’ve been so focused on the missing hotdog vendor who might be a suspect that they’ve barely even been trying to identify her anymore.  Maybe if they had they’d have put all this together -- if they’d known where she’d lived, or worked, or who she was, maybe there would have been a link to those other girls.  But it’s too late to wonder about any of that now.

And then everything gets even worse.  Hodge looks at them, eyes hard and disappointed, and says:

“I’m splitting you two up.”

“ _What_? --”

“Hodge, no --”

“ _Listen_.  You’ve done good work together for a few years now, but after what happened with your parents --”

“That was thirty years ago!”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot of people working here who still remember it.  And just because it got hushed up doesn’t mean that everyone’s been comfortable with the idea of two Lightwoods working together again.  People have been wary about you two from the start, and when you’ve been working well it was possible to ignore all that, but not after this.  It’s the captain’s orders.  At least for the time being, you two don’t work together anymore.”

“Look, we’ll -- we’ll solve the case,” Jace says, his voice a little pleading.  Alec feels like he’s in shock.  He’s always worked with Jace, for years now.  They compliment each other perfectly, like an oiled machine; Alec’s not even sure he knows how to do his job with anyone else.

“No, you won’t.”  Hodge closes the file again and stands up, his chair squeaking on the tile.  “Lightwood will.  With Branwell.  Wayland, you’re partnered with Pandey now, so take half your cases and get him up to speed.”

“ _Raj_ ?  We drive each other crazy!” Jace protests, but Hodge is already leaving the room, and he doesn’t say anything else before the door slams shut behind him. 

Silence.  A long beat of overwhelming, stifling silence.  Then, Alec reaches deep into his heart, finds exactly how he’s feeling about everything that’s just happened, and says one word.

“Shit.”

\-----

By the time Alec gets home that evening, he’s in the worst mood he’s been in for months.  

They’d spent half the morning dividing up their cases, and then Alec had to go and meet the detectives working on the other murders, and then he spent most of the afternoon with Lydia, getting caught up on the other cases of hers that he was supposed to be working on now too.  Which -- Lydia’s _nice,_ or a close enough approximation to nice that he likes her, she’s efficient as hell and takes no shit and gets more stuff done than most of the rest of the precinct combined.  But he’s only worked a few cases with her over the years, few and far between, and it’s gonna be an adjustment.  For both of them.  So far, it still only feels weird.

He goes to the gym for an hour after work and takes as much of it as he can out on a punching bag, but it doesn’t help much in the end.  When he gets back to his dark, lonely apartment, he still wants to do nothing but mope.  He knows it’s childish and self indulgent but right then he doesn’t particularly care.  He bangs shampoo bottles around in his evening shower and slams the oven door when he’s making dinner and just generally lets himself feel foul.

It’s a whole mixture of things, really.  He’s worried about working with someone new, annoyed about how much he already misses Jace, but mostly he’s beating himself up over the case.  More important than any of the dumb shit in his own life is making sure this guy is caught before he can do anything to another girl.

Alec’s job always comes first.  It always has.  Even before he was a cop, back in high school when he was only dreaming about it, he treated this career as more important than his own life.

It’s a sign of how off his day has been that he doesn’t even realise he hasn’t really spoken to Magnus all day.  Honestly, that’s probably another aspect of his terrible mood; speaking to Magnus has by now become a staple of his days, one of the few things that really makes him happy for a lot of the time.  He’d responded to Magnus’s good morning text earlier, as always, but when he suddenly checks his phone he realises there are a couple of alerts since then that he’s missed, in all the chaos.  

[ Dec.04 -- 11:12 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Alexander, I’ve had the hectic morning to end all hectic mornings.  Come save me!  There’s some week-old Chinese food in the fridge with your name in it if you want to come have lunch down here…_

[ Dec.04 -- 15:08 -- From: magnus bane ]

_From the radio silence I’m guessing your day is even busier than mine!  And I’ve just had eighteen blood samples dropped onto my desk.  In other news, Maureen from the front desk asked me out ;)  Should I let her know you’ve staked your claim, or just show her the hickeys?_

Despite everything, his horrible mood and how he immediately feels bad for missing them, the messages make Alec smile.

 

[ Dec.04 -- 19:42 -- From: magnus bane ]

_rlly sorry, only just saw these_

[ Dec.04 -- 19:42 -- From: magnus bane ]

_i’ve had the day from hell, messed up a case, sarg is pissed, me and jace have been split up, and i’m working w/ another det. to try and catch a serial killer now i guess_

[ Dec.04 -- 19:42 -- From: magnus bane ]

_and yes.  tell her i’ve staked my claim_

Summing it all up like that, so simply and without all the horrible emotions of failure and fear of change attached, actually makes Alec feel a little bit better.  He’s exhausted, though, emotionally from his whole day and physically from going a little bit manic at the gym earlier, so even though it’s not even eight yet he changes into his pyjama pants and gets into bed with his laptop.  He’ll watch a dumb movie on Netflix to take his mind off everything, he decides, and starts scrolling through the list of gay romcoms.

Just as he’s picked the cheesiest sounding one and is about to switch it on, though, his phone suddenly buzzes.  Not a text, a call, and Magnus’s face popping up on the screen -- a selfie he’d taken on Alec’s phone last week, when Alec had gone down to the morgue and it had somehow come up that he didn’t have a picture for Magnus’s caller ID.  Magnus is pulling a silly face and is under fluorescent lights, but he somehow still looks beautiful in it, and Alec stares at the picture for a long moment before picking up.

“Magnus?” he says, shutting his laptop and shuffling down his bed a little.

“Hello, darling,” Magnus says.  His voice is a bit crackly but instantly makes Alec feel better anyway.  “Your day sounds awful.  Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”  Alec sighs.  “Thanks for calling, though, but I’m fine.  Or I will be fine.  I’ll be a lot better when we catch this guy, but we have a lot more information now, so hopefully that’ll be soon.”

“I’m sure it will,” Magnus says, and his voice doesn’t sound condescending or placating or anything -- he really does just have that much confidence in Alec.  That realisation sends a shock of warmth through Alec’s whole body, comforting in a way even his fluffiest duvet couldn’t manage to be.

“Will you tell me about your day?” he asks, before he can help it.  “I was gonna watch a movie or something, but I just want to be distracted.  There are a million thoughts racing around my mind that I’d rather ignore.”

And of course, if there’s anything Magnus is good at, it’s talking.  He tells Alec about work, and the argument he’d gotten in with a lab tech, and how he’s pretty sure he’s gonna get food poisoning from that old Chinese he had for lunch, and about how he’d gently told Maureen he was dating someone when she’d asked if he wanted to get a drink, and how Izzy had thought it was the funniest thing ever.  He talks for a while, Alec only occasionally interjecting with comments or questions.  Mostly, he just lies there, nestled in his blankets with his hands over his eyes, and listens.  Even just talking about random gossip, Magnus’s voice relaxes him.  It washes over Alec like warm water, working out the tension of his muscles, until his brain is quiet and his body is loose and he’s almost dropping off with his phone still pressed to his ear.

“Sorry, I’m falling asleep on you,” he mumbles, stifling a yawn into his pillow.  There’s a soft laugh from the other end of the line.

The last thing Alec hears before he falls asleep is Magnus saying, “Goodnight, Alexander.”  By that point, it doesn't seem like Alec's day has been very bad at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the true reason this story is AU is so i can pretend netflix would ever have a good selection of gay romcoms
> 
> leave me a comment and i'll love you forever!
> 
>  [me on tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is less than twenty four hours late so we're gonna pretend it's on time shhhhh

Alec’s first day with Lydia as his partner can be summed up in a word.   _Weird_.

Not bad weird.  Or, at least mostly not bad weird.  But Alec still doesn’t like change and things are changing from the moment he walks into the precinct.

For starters, Lydia is there before him.  Alec is always at least half an hour early for his shift, usually more like forty five minutes; he likes to get coffee from the breakroom, skim read all his case files again, get himself set up before the morning briefing.  And Jace is always late, so Alec usually has an hour to himself, thinking and coming up with his own theories and leads, before he relays all that to his partner.  His independent brain works well that way.

But Lydia’s there before him.  Of course Alec’s known that she’s an early bird like him -- they’re usually the only two people in the bullpen in the mornings, sometimes they make small talk about cases and weapons training as they drink their coffee.  But it’s different.  She’s his partner now, and all the cases he would be going over are her cases too.  

“Morning,” she says, all businesslike but still smiling, when he walks in.  Alec actually stands there for a moment, looking at her at her desk, before jolting out of it and mumbling back a response.  He goes straight to the break room for his coffee, picking out that awful rainbow mug that’s somehow renowned as  _ his,  _ and then he goes back out and doesn’t know what to do.  Lydia’s looking over the case file for the serial killer case.  They don’t have a witty moniker for it yet or anything, so that’s how Alec’s referring to it in his head.  It’s not like he’s never worked a serial killer before, but this one seems more deserving of the name, somehow, given how much of a surprise it came as.

Lydia’s desk is right opposite Alec’s, and he figures he should head there, to his own chair and own computer and some other work that doesn’t involve case files and will feel weird to do but still kind of exist within his morning routine.  Except he’s only a couple of steps across the room when Lydia calls out to him.

“Do you want to go over the case together before morning briefing?”

Well.  Alec dawdles for a moment.  That is both exactly what he’d like to do and the opposite of what he’d like to do.  He wants to go over the case but he wants to do it alone, isn’t sure he’ll get anything done without the solitude he usually relies on in the mornings.  Still, it seems really rude to say no, and he doesn’t have a good reason to.  
  
“Sure,” he says instead, setting his coffee down cautiously on her desk and drawing up a chair.

They look through the files together, talking about at they know so far, theories they have, which leads they should follow up next.  It’s different, and Alec still thinks he works better when he can go over cases by himself, has always worked better in isolation.  But it’s not bad.  By the time the rest of the precinct starts to file in, they’ve got a couple pretty solid ideas of what to do next.

The next weird thing is hearing the Sarg call out  _ Lightwood and Branwell  _ in morning briefing.  Over the weekend clearly the gossip about Alec and Jace getting split up has spread through the rest of the precinct, because nobody looks surprised but they do all still look interested.

That’s not too bad though -- none of that’s too bad.  It’s all adjustments he can make.

The first properly weird thing is when they set off for the day to go and look at a crime scene.  It’s not the for the serial killer case, though that’s their priority right now, but for an armed robbery at an electronics store that Lydia had been working with Raj.

As soon as they get outside the precinct, Alec starts heading over to his car, but Lydia stops him in his tracks when she moves in the opposite direction, boots thumping on the pavement with her purposeful walk.

“We’re taking my car, c’mon,” she says.  Her tone isn’t harsh or anything but there’s no room for negotiation in it.

And that’s when it hits Alec that he’s not working with Jace anymore.  Up until this point he hasn’t really registered it; there have been times when one of them has been off for a few days, for vacation or injury or whatever, so just working with someone else on a case wasn’t enough to make it really sink in.  But for some stupid reason, Lydia asking to drive is.  Alec always drives.  Jace is a hazard in a car, frequently referred to as the worst driver in New York City, and is more relieved than anything else to let Alec take the wheel.  They’ve worked like that in a lot of ways.

Alec was always in control.  Not of Jace, who’s unpredictable and impossible to stop when he sets his mind on something, but of things like driving, and details, and meetings, and paperwork, and deciding where they were going to go and what they were going to do, provided Jace didn’t get a hunch and run off by himself.  Alec’s not sure it’s going to be like that anymore, though.  Actually, he’s pretty sure it can’t be like that anymore.  Everyone in the precinct teases that Lydia’s just as much of a control freak as he is.

Alec thinks he and Lydia might be too similar for this to work.  He follows her to her car and gets in the passenger side without complaining, but it still sits kind of wrong with him, and she takes a different route than he would have to get to the store and it probably doesn’t get them there any slower but he still feels oddly annoyed about it.  He’s not quite as grouchy as he was on Friday before Magnus talked him down, and before the weekend where he’d worked out of a lot of his annoyance at the gym and then had a quick coffee date with Magnus on Sunday and felt like he was floating on air afterwards.  But he’s certainly not happy anymore.

Lydia doesn’t seem to have noticed his mood, which he supposes is a good thing.  She’s not making small talk or teasing like Jace would be, doesn’t even have music on.  She’s all business, which Alec appreciates but isn’t sure he’ll get used to.

It’s the same at the crime scene.  Alec would usually have taken the lead on interviewing the witness, but she starts before he can get a word in.  She’s clearly not doing it to be annoying or anything, doesn’t seem remotely aware that Alec feels awkward just standing there and occasionally jotting down things in his notebook.

Alec doesn’t come up with any leads on the case, and honestly, though he tries to throw himself into work like he usually does when he has problems, the fact that work is  _ causing  _ his problems right now is making it hard to focus.  Which is terrible.  People could die if he messes up at his job -- that’s a lot of pressure.  Still, he trails around after Lydia all day, trying not to feel useless as she navigates through crime scenes and catches him up on cases and spots clues he would have normally spotted if he had his head in the game.

If she notices his distraction, she doesn’t say anything, but Alec feels bad enough about it for the both of them.  He lets her drive them back to the precinct at the end of the day, tries not to show how weird it is when he realises that she’ll do her own paperwork and he won’t have to help or correct it all like he does with Jace, and then tries to mirror her genuine smile and polite goodbye when she leaves for the night.

As soon as she’s gone, he decides to go downstairs and see Magnus.

\-----

When Alec walks into the morgue, Izzy is up to her elbows in a dead guy’s stomach.

“Oh -- geez, okay,” Alec exclaims, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment.  He’s good enough with dead bodies these days but still, he likes to have a little warning before any viewing of intestines.  Isabelle, who does not have this problem, is pulling them out of the body and piling them into a metal bowl while humming Taylor Swift under her breath.

“Hey big brother,” she says, waving a little, though Alec doesn’t look too closely so he doesn’t have to see what’s on her hand.  “I’m just getting a few samples out of Mr Peterson here -- me and Magnus are gonna test his stomach contents to see if he could have eaten at that embezzling Greek restaurant last night.”

She sounds so excited by it that Alec can’t help but grin at her, even as he sidesteps so he doesn’t have to get too close to her and Mr Peterson while crossing the morgue.

“Uh, I’m looking for him actually -- Magnus.”  Lord, now he’s even stuttering around his sister, he’s a mess.  “Is he in his office?”

Izzy raises one eyebrow under her plastic visor, her expression far too knowing and more than a little smug, but he ignores all that.

“Yep.  I think he’s just finishing up running UV analysis on some drugs the uniforms bought in, though, so maybe give him a minute before you go in there and distract him with your ass.  Hey, isn’t today your first day working with Lydia?”

Alec decides to let the comment about his ass slide, and huffs in a way that sounds a little more like a groan, leaning heavily back against the wall and staring up at the ceiling.  

“Yeah.  It’s been so weird.  Don’t ever tell him I said this, but I miss Jace already.”

"Hey, don't complain," Izzy warns him, pointing a scalpel his way with a worrying amount of threat in her tone.  "You know I love you, big brother, but Lydia's a doll and she's a better cop than Jace anyway.  You know she was part of the biggest undercover op this precinct's ever run?  And she set the precision shooting record when she was just a rookie.  You're lucky to get partnered with her."

Sometimes Alec forgets that Izzy is friends with practically every other female employee in their precinct, but she always swiftly reminds him.  They also have a monthly getting-really-drunk-at-a-wine-bar club that many men have tried to infiltrate over the years, but none have ever succeeded.  Alec's pretty sure most of the precinct’s most important decisions get made at those meetings.

He’s also pretty sure she’s made out with Lydia while drunk at said wine bar before, but that’s neither here nor there.   
  
"It's nothing against Lydia," he assures her quickly, partly for his own safety from that scalpel but also because it's true.  "I know she's a good cop, but me and Jace have worked together since we were rookies.  We're good partners.  It won't be the same working with someone else, no matter how good she is."   
  
"You'll adjust.  You and Jace are too codependent anyway," she says, turning back to Mr Peterson.  Alec doesn’t protest, because that’s certainly true.  Instead he silently watches as she finishes up the autopsy, wondering why she’s working so late.  He doesn’t want to distract her from her job by asking, though he knows Izzy could give stitches in her sleep.  

“How are things going with Meliorn?” he dares to ask when she’s finally cleared the room of corpses and thrown away her bloody gloves.  She’s finally packing up to go home for the night, and she doesn’t stop putting her coat on when he asks, but she does tense up for just a moment.

“Don’t worry about me, Alec,” she tells him, smiling when she turns back around, and comes over to drag him down by the neck so she can kiss his cheek.  There’s probably an obnoxious red lipstick mark left there but he doesn’t mind too much.

“That’s not an answer.”  It’s not that he wants to pry.  Alec knows Izzy can make her own decisions -- she probably has a better head on her shoulders than anyone he knows.  But he’s her brother and he can’t help but want her happy, or at least want to know if she isn’t, so he knows if he needs to try and help.

“It’s going better this time around,” she tells him, sounding mostly certain.  “I think it helps that we’re not trying to be exclusive.  But I told him if we break up again, it’s gonna be for good this time -- see, I’m holding up my end of the bargain.”

She grins a little at that, and truthfully Alec had almost forgotten about their conversation in her kitchen, weeks ago now.  He rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, well, so am I.”  His end of the bargain was that he would give Magnus a real chance, without holding back his emotions; it’s fair to say he’s managing that.

“I know you are.”  Izzy looks altogether too smug as she hugs his arm.  “You’re practically all he ever talks about these days, y’know?”

As if on cue, the door to Magnus’s lab flies open just then.  He steps out, still in his labcoat and carrying a tray of empty test tubes, probably cleaning up for the night.  His face goes from businesslike to purely joyful the moment he spots Alec.

“Alexander!” he calls, quickly shoving the test tubes onto a storage shelf and crossing the room in a few quick strides.  He kisses Alec quickly and chastely, completely uncaring of their audience, which sends Alec’s cheeks flushing bright red even as he enjoys the feeling of Magnus’s lips.  Izzy laughs.

“And that’s my cue to leave,” she says.  “Alec, dinner’s at your place tomorrow.  See you in the morning, Magnus!”

She breezes out before either of them can say another word, and then they’re left in the consuming silence of her absence, of their aloneness in the bright, cold room.

“How was your day?” Magnus asks, stepping back a little to shrug off his labcoat and hang it up in one of the big metal lockers that line one side of the room.  His shirt is silky and mostly sinfully transparent, and for a moment Alec’s so consumed in watching the motion of his sculpted shoulders that he forgets to answer.

“Oh -- uh --”  He doesn’t really want to get into the specifics of it anymore, would much rather attack Magnus’s lips and get some catharsis that way, but it seems a little inappropriate given the setting so he tries for his words.  “Weird.  I mean, working with Lydia is -- an adjustment, I guess.”

“You’ve worked with Jace a very long time, right?”  

“Practically forever.  I mean, he was a year behind me to the academy, and we weren’t paired up as rookies or anything, but we’ve never worked at different precincts, and we’ve been partners the whole time we’ve been detectives, and we’ve been playing cops together since we were kids.  I guess I never figured I’d have to work so closely with anyone else but him.”

Magnus is regarding him rather carefully, evaluating almost, but he looks content and steps closer to Alec again, sliding his elegant hands around Alec’s waist, slipping them under his jacket so nothing but the cotton of Alec’s shirt separates them from touching skin-to-skin.  It sends a spark of heat through Alec, to have Magnus standing so close he can look down and see every detail of his eyes, every fleck in their warm brown colour.

“You’ll adjust, and be amazing as always, I’m sure about that,” Magnus tells him.

Alec forgets that he thought it would be inappropriate to do this in a morgue, and that they’re in the middle of a conversation, and that Magnus is still probably on the clock for work.  He forgets all that, and kisses him.

It doesn’t start soft at all.  It’s not a violent kiss but it’s a frantic one, filled with warmth and a desperate sort of emotion Alec is terrified to put a name to.  He wraps one arm fully around the back of Magnus’s neck, pulling him as close as can be, and uses the other one to dig so hard into Magnus’s hip he’s probably leaving marks with his fingernails.  That ridiculously tempting gauzy shirt rubs up and down against Alec’s hands as they move together, trying to shuffle into the maximum amount of contact their bodies can allow without breaking their kiss.

With a surprising amount of strength, Magnus pushes Alec back against the cold metal of the lockers, and Alec’s head hits with a bit too loud of a  _ thud  _ but he barely even notices the pain.  He drops both his hands to Magnus’s hips and with a hard tug pulls him in even closer.  It just makes it all feel better, the way he’s surrounded, the way he can feel Magnus’s whole body pushing up to him, Magnus’s lips just as forceful as the rest of it as they kiss.  They stay like that for what could be minutes or could be a lot longer, desperately kissing until Alec’s head spins and all he can think about is Magnus’s tongue and lips and the devastating intensity he’s letting loose on Alec.

Then Magnus pulls away, and Alec goes into mourning for about one second until Magnus’s lips attach to his neck.  Alec lets out a short, choked gasp before he can help it, arching his body back off the lockers while Magnus bites at the join of his shoulder, his Adam’s apple.  With their height difference, Magnus falls naturally into the level of Alec’s throat, and that has never seemed like more of a blessing than it does at that moment.  Alec throws his head back, gasping again when Magnus bites him harder, moving his hands restlessly from Magnus’s hips, to elbows, to shoulders, running his nails along Magnus’s arms and feeling the catch of Magnus’s shirt, the way it gives, the way it’s so thin that he can feel Magnus’s body heat beneath it.  He might as well not be wearing anything at all.  Alec wishes he wasn’t wearing anything at all.

They kiss again as soon as he thinks that, and it’s almost too much to bear.  Neither of them can seem to keep their hands or their bodies still, and within minutes their breath is failing them as well, both gasping into each other’s mouths and having to pull away harshly every few moments with an obscene smack of lips just to try and get air into their lungs.  Alec runs his hands through Magnus’s hair, working at the hard ends where it’s set with gel until the structure comes undone a little and he can separate out the strands and pull on them, and Magnus lets out an indecent noise, high pitched and throaty.  

With his hair rumpled and his lips swollen and his eyes glassy, pupils huge, Magnus looks  _ wild.   _ Alec wishes he could live in the image of it forever, thinks he could stare for a thousand years and never get tired of looking at Magnus like this as they try to catch their breath, lips still only a fraction away from touching.  He wants to take a picture but it would never look as good, would never capture the slight smudges of Magnus’s eyeliner or the few little scars Alec can spot on his skin this close up, all those tiny imperfect things that add up to perfection.  So Alec just tries to seal the image in his mind instead.

And then he makes the mistake of letting his eyes glance over Magnus’s shoulder, and remembers that they’re in a morgue.  There are freezers full of dead bodies opposite them.  There’s a bin full of blood-soaked clothes in the corner.

He lets his head fall back against the lockers and groans again, but this time it’s for a different reason.  His hands go slack in Magnus’s hair.

“We probably shouldn’t do this here,” he admits, even though it practically pains him to say.  Magnus laughs breathlessly, looking like he can’t quite believe what’s going on.  Well, that makes two of them.

“You’re very, very right,” Magnus admits, and takes one loud deep breath.  They stand there for another long moment, pressed tight together, both obviously trying to calm down.  Then Magnus pulls away, and Alec finally lets his hands drop back to his own sides.

“Are you done for the day?” he asks Magnus, suddenly remembering that Magnus had still been working when Alec turned up.  Magnus just nods.

“I was just going to get ready to leave,” he says.  “Hang on, let me get my coat, and we can walk out together.”

Alec smiles, and nods, and deflates slightly back against the lockers he’s still leaning against when Magnus turns away.  This day has still been fucking strange, but everything in his life is changing so quickly at the moment, and he’s sure not all of it is a bad thing.  So maybe he should just try and go with the flow.

Alec’s never been good at that, but it’s worth a shot.  He thinks when they get outside, he won’t just head straight to the subway.  He’ll invite Magnus to get Starbucks before they head home, instead.  Magnus will drink some complicated syrupy nightmare and talk animatedly about his day, snarking about coworkers and the grossness of crime scenes, and Alec will probably get tea, and just listen to him.

He takes one last deep breath and pushes himself off the lockers, watching the lab door as Magnus reemerges.  He’s smiling as he shrugs into his glimmering patchwork jacket, and heads back towards Alec.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there will actually be more lydia next chapter, i was just too excited to get back to the malec in this tbh (we all know where my priorities lie i'm not even ashamed of it i just wanna write smooches)
> 
> the next chap will be up on sunday! there'll be ever so slightly longer gaps for the next two weeks, cus i'm working on my malec big bang fic at the same time. but this should still be getting like two chapters a week~~
> 
> leave a comment and i'll love you forever!
> 
> [my tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote half of this on sunday like i said i would but then the sharks lost the cup while i was working on it and i had to very honestly mourn for two days
> 
> not a ton of malec in this one but lydia!! yay!!! and case stuff!! i guess case stuff is good i mean i feel like the fact that they're cops doesnt even matter anymore i only care about malec you guys only care about malec who even knows at this point w h o e v e n k no w s

That Tuesday’s dinner with Jace and Izzy is basically just an exercise in listening to Jace complain about Raj.  An extra day hasn’t much helped Alec feel better about working with Lydia, either, but it’s oddly reassuring to hear just how bad Jace has it.

Not that Raj is a bad guy or anything, Alec actually gets on with him well enough.  But he’s very rule abiding and a bit of a suck up to the captain, which was never gonna work well in tandem with Jace’s what-they-don’t-know-won’t-hurt-them approach to the rules.  As they dig into vast amounts of takeout, Jace rants without taking more breaths than is biologically required to inhale food at the same time as talking.  He rants about how Raj wouldn’t let them play music in the car, and told him to wear a tie, and wouldn’t go into the back room of a bar where _clearly_ illegal stuff was happening just because it was locked and they didn’t have a warrant.  Which is basically what Alec would have forced Jace to do in the same situation, so he's torn between feeling bad for Jace or actually feeling bad for Raj having to _put up_ with Jace.  It’s the first time Alec’s spent longer than a few minutes in Jace’s company since they got split up last week, and honestly, hearing the constant complaining makes it a little easier not to miss him on the job.    
  
Alec loves his brother, his best friend, his partner of years.  But Jace is also a bit of a drama queen who loves to throw tantrums.  At least he’ll never have that problem with Lydia.

\-----

Usually things get kind of tense when a case goes between two precincts, but the detectives who’ve been working the other murders in the serial killer case actually seem glad to have some fresh eyes.  Alec supposes it must be frustrating to them -- they’ve been working it for months and barely have more leads than Alec and Lydia.  It helps that Clary’s stepdad, Luke, is the captain at the other precinct, and he and Alec have known each other for a couple of years, are on good terms.  So files get shared and they all promise to trade any information they find out and keep working at it, but honestly Alec gets the impression that he and Lydia are working this one alone, by this point.

Alec doesn’t mind that, though.  He’s never been particularly great at handling big groups of people, and big groups of other detectives can be especially tiring.

And with this more information, they finally manage to identify their victim.  All the other girls had been from the same area, so they focus their search on anyone who’s been reported missing around there, and it barely takes them a day to find her.  Topia Jones.  Twenty five years old, waitress and aspiring actress.

Her address is interesting.  Or not the address itself, which is just some crummy apartment building in the back end of Brooklyn, but the fact that the victim before her had lived there too.

“Could be the start of a pattern,” Lydia says as the pour over the findings.  “Or a specific hunting ground.  I say we stake the place out tonight, see if there’s anyone else living there who might fit the profile.”

Alec agrees readily.  He resents this case so much by now that he’d agree to anything as a possible lead.  This is the case that split him and Jace up, and the crimes are horrific -- no matter how long Alec is on the job he doesn’t think it’ll ever get easier to see young women murdered.  If sitting in a car with Lydia for a night is the best chance they have of breaking it, he’ll happily oblige.

They clear it with the Sarg and then decide to leave as soon as it gets dark.  The apartment building they’re staking out is pretty shady and it probably wouldn’t shock any of the residents to see a strange car parked outside it for hours, but it’s still better to not take any chances with subtlety.

“I can pick you up from your apartment if you want,” Lydia says, as Alec finishes filling out some paperwork.  “Just give me your address.  There’s no point in us both heading back to the precinct two hours after we go home.”

Alec’s almost tempted to say no and spitefully insist that he’ll drive himself, but he bites it back.  Logically he knows that it’s not Lydia he’s angry at, it’s the situation she represents.  She’s actually been trying hard to make things work, and wasn’t even so bossy the last couple of days, clearly making an effort to relinquish some of her usual control to Alec -- though she apparently still has a thing about driving.  

“That sounds good,” he says cautiously, and puts his apartment details into her phone so she can navigate to it later.  Lydia is only the fourth person from work he’s ever given his address to, apart from his siblings.  It’s a little weird to think.

Just before the end of the work day, Alec decides to go downstairs and say hi to Magnus.  He tries to say it like that in his head, not acknowledging that he’s secretly hoping _saying hi_ will include a little more inappropriate workplace kissing, despite how much that would probably relax him before he has to go on this stakeout tonight.  And he also ignores the fact that he’s rather hoping his sister won’t be there, no matter how much he adores her.  Alec’s priorities feel very messed up lately, but he’s too happy to particularly care.

When he gets down to the morgue, Izzy isn’t there, but Magnus isn’t there either.  A rather frazzled looking junior lab tech informs him that Magnus is off at a crime scene, and won’t be back for a while, so there’s not much point in Alec waiting around.  Alec feels oddly restless at the thought that he won’t get to see Magnus all day today, but he sighs it off and settles on a text instead, telling Magnus about the stakeout.  He’s barely out the door when Magnus responds.

[ Dec.09 -- 17:02 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Good luck! Not that you need it, being such a fabulous detective and all.  I’ll send you some terrible playlists for the car._

\-----

Alec feels weird back at his apartment.  He usually winds down after work but knowing that he has to go out again in a couple of hours makes that pointless.  He takes his usual shower, which has recently devolved into his usual shower-and-jerk-off-thinking-about-Magnus, makes himself a quick dinner, packs some snacks and bottles of water into a backpack, and then settles back to watch something mindless on Netflix while he waits for Lydia.

She’s early, which he actually appreciates.  She doesn’t come up, which he appreciates as well, just texts him from the car outside.  When he goes down he finds her not in the usual bland sedan she drives on cases, but something small and dark with tinted windows.  Alec doesn’t know shit about cars but he can tell that this one is no work of art, and will probably fit in far more in the rough part of Brooklyn where they’re headed.

“Nice ride,” he says cautiously as he slides into the passenger seat.  She smiles at him.

“I signed it out of impound for the night.  It’s hell to drive but it does incognito better, I have to admit.”

Alec doesn’t feel the need for a ton of words after that, and apparently Lydia doesn’t either, which is kind of nice.  She checks her mirrors twice before she pulls out and then takes them across Brooklyn with all the ruthless ease of someone who’s been driving in New York for their entire life, even though she only moved here a couple of years ago.  Alec’s reluctantly impressed.

They eventually park a couple of buildings down and across the street from the apartments they’re staking out, far enough that hopefully their presence won’t be suspicious but close enough that they have a clear view.  Their parking spot is just down from a little bodega, too, and almost as soon as the car pulls to a stop Lydia is climbing out.  
  
“D’you want anything?” she asks.  Alec pats his backpack helpfully.

“I’m fine, I brought snacks.”  She nods, shuts the door behind her, and disappears.  Alec’s a little surprised.  He figured she’d be the kind to bring everything she needed, like him, and wouldn’t want to leave the car for even a second once they were officially on the clock.  Maybe she forgot something.

Or not -- a few minutes later she comes back juggling nothing but two huge blue slushies.  She clambers back into her seat and sets them both on the centre console, while Alec looks at her with horror in his eyes.

“I’m not drinking that,” he quickly informs her.  The amount of e-numbers and fake flavourings would probably kill him.  

“These are both for me,” Lydia says, squinting at him like he’s a little bit dumb.  Wow.  She takes a big slurp of one through the straw even as she sets up the camera on their dashboard so it’s pointed towards the apartment entrance, and when she looks back at him, her lips are stained a bit blue at the edges.

She’s still dressed mostly in somehow professional-looking leather and doesn’t have a hair out of place and her steely eyes seem like they have the power castrate a man in a second, but Lydia suddenly seems much less intimidating.  Human, even.  Alec’s never disliked her, but he’s suddenly not sure he’s _liked_ her until that exact moment, either.

She takes another slurp of her scary drink, and Alec pulls some snacks out of his bag.

“At least eat some protein so you don’t crash from all that sugar,” he says, throwing a packet of peanuts at her.  She hums around her straw but rips open the peanuts, and munches a few down thoughtfully before she starts talking again, suddenly all business with blue lips.

“So, this guy’s killed two women from this apartment block, possibly more given the fact that a lot of the rentals are apparently short-term cash only for people who need to go somewhere on the hush, and one of the other victims had no registered current address.  They all looked alike so obviously if we see any young women with long black hair going in there, we need to speak to them.  Maybe this guy’s got history with one of them, maybe he’s been lurking around and someone’s managed to get away from him, something like that.  At the very least we can warn them.  But there’s also a chance we’ll actually see the killer, so we both need to keep our eyes out for anyone acting remotely suspicious.  Did you study up on all the suspects?”

Alec nods, reaching back into his bag to pull out a thick folder.  One of the few things the other precinct had been able to contribute was a few potential suspects, some of which they’d interviewed and some of which they’d just considered.  They never found enough to get so much as a strong suspicion that it was any of them, though, but it was still better than nothing.  Alec’s read the descriptions on all of them a dozen times today, and he has all their photos and info with him now, too.

“Guess now there’s nothing to do but wait,” he says.  Lydia nods, and takes another sip of her slushie.

\-----

The worst thing about stakeouts isn’t having to sit still, or being in confined spaces with another person, or even that Alec’s legs are too long to ever get at all comfortable in a car.  It’s that they’re _boring._ Three hours later and they’ve only seen one person enter the apartments, a heavily pregnant blonde lady who couldn’t have looked less suspicious if she tried but who Lydia dutifully took a few photos of anyway.  Barely anyone has even passed on the street.  They can’t listen to music, in case they draw attention to their car.  They’re both supposed to be paying attention all the time so Alec can’t even distract himself by texting Magnus, even though Magnus is going to some theatre-in-a-bar thing tonight with his friend Catarina and is probably hilariously drunk and full of interesting stories by now.

Alec and Lydia make the barest amount of small talk, but it’s obvious that neither of them are very good at it, because they only end up discussing work again.  They bounce ideas off each other about the suspects for a while but there’s not honestly enough evidence to make a compelling case for anyone.  Then they discuss a few of their other cases.  It’s obvious the jewellery store owner robbed himself for the insurance money and Alec has an idea how to prove it.  Lydia has a hunch about a hostile witness in their fraud case.  They both go over what they’re going to say when they have to testify in court about the Porter aggravated assault.  It’s all the kind of stuff they talked about in the precinct all day, and while it’s good to think about their cases as much as possible, none of it’s really helping them.

By midnight, Alec’s feeling kind of worn down.  He’d usually go to bed about this time but it’s not like he’s incapable of staying up later -- sitting down for so long just has him oddly sluggish.  He’s had a few drunken but still perfectly spelled texts from Magnus but that’s the only interesting thing to have happened so far.  He wants to get out of the car and stretch his legs, at least, but the tinted windows are doing a good job of hiding the fact that there’s two people sat in the car and he doesn’t want to draw attention to it by getting out after they’ve been parked for so long.  It doesn’t seem like anyone’s watching them, but you can never be too careful.

Lydia’s finished her first slushie and moved onto the second one, complaining about how it’s melted a bit, even though Alec would have thought the freezing December air would have kept it from turning liquid.  They don’t have the engine on so there’s no heat in the car, and they’re both sat there in their coats and gloves.  He’s about to offer to go get her another one, if she thinks it’s worth the risk of getting out of the car, when it happens.  
  
Someone walks past the front of their car to cross to the other side of the street, and Lydia freezes.

“Lydia?” Alec asks immediately, craning to look around her at who it was.  “What is it, what did you see?  Was it one of the suspects?  Did he have --”

“No,” she interrupts, jolting back into motion almost as suddenly as she’d stopped.  “Sorry, no, it’s not -- nothing to do with the case.” She takes a deep breath, her grip tightening on the steering wheel, and says slowly, “He just looked like my husband.”

Alec blinks at her.

“I didn’t know you were married.”  His gaze reflexively slips down to her left hand.  She’s wearing gloves, but he’s sure she doesn’t usually wear a wedding ring.  Could he really have missed that?

“He died,” she says, her voice the practiced kind of even that makes the pain even more obvious.

Oh.  

“Oh.”  Alec pauses, awkward as ever and unsure what to say.  Apart from a couple of grandparents he wasn’t close to and an acquaintance from the force, Alec’s never known anyone who’s died.  He’s lucky.  But he doesn’t know how to handle himself around grief.  “I’m sorry.”

Lydia shakes her head, and a strand comes flying loose from her tight braid.  It’s the first time he’s ever seen her with a hair out of place.  Lydia had transferred to the precinct about a year and a half ago, maybe closer to two, from California, where she hadn’t grown up and claimed to not be able to stand the constant heat.  Alec’s never seen her wear a wedding ring.  He wonders how long she waited to transfer to New York after her husband died, but it seems rude to ask, so he keeps his mouth shut.

“Thank you,” she says, her voice not quiet, not grief-stricken, just as strong as he’d expect from her.  “But I’m okay.”  She pauses for a long moment, and Alec thinks about saying that she can talk about it if she wants, but before he can get the words out she’s started to anyway.  “His name was John.  He was a cop, like me.  We met while we were in high school but we lived in different states.  I went to college in California just to be with him.  Our parents completely disapproved, of course, but we went to college together and then through the academy together and we got married as soon as we graduated.  He got -- he got shot, on the job.  I wasn’t with him when he died.”

Her voice becomes even steadier when she says that, even more calm, and Alec wonders how long she’s had to practice to make it that way.  It breaks his heart a little.  

“Do you want me to go get you another slushie?” he asks.  It’s probably the dumbest thing to say but he can’t think of anything else in that moment, and against all odds, it seems to work.  Lydia turns to face him, and her smile is small but it reaches her eyes.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind that this one’s melted a bit,” she says, drinking some of it as if to prove a point.

“Okay.  Listen -- Lydia, I mean, if you ever want to talk, I don’t mind.  Or, well, talking I’m not very good at, but I am a good listener.  Just.  So you know.”

“Thanks, Alec.  I really mean that.  Thanks.”  She pats his knee and it feels oddly sweet.  “But I’m doing okay.  It’s not like it happened yesterday or anything.  And now -- well, not I just focus on the job, which is alright.”

She turns back to look at the apartments across the street but it’s not an end to the conversation, clearly.  Alec shifts so he’s looking out, too.  He wants to say something about how that’s no way to live, but he doesn’t exactly have much room to talk.  Being a cop has always been his number one priority -- he doesn’t even have a heartbreak to blame it on.

“Besides, what about you?” Lydia suddenly says.  Alec doesn’t know what she’s talking about for a minute, until she turns her head just enough to fix him with some very knowing eyes.  “I _am_ friends with your sister.  You know, Magnus is one of the best forensic analysts in the country -- I read his thesis on laser analysis of unknown toxins before I even moved to New York!  You two are an item now, right?”

Alec hadn’t been aware that Magnus was particularly famous in the forensics world, but he supposes Lydia’s the type to have quite niche interests.

“Uh,” he says.  He thinks about her phrasing.  Are they an _item?_ His cheeks heat up, and he’s immensely thankful she can’t tell through the darkness of the car.  “Yeah.  I guess we are.”  
  
They haven’t had that talk yet, or anything close to it, but they’ve been going out every time they’re both free -- they’ve gone on a few proper dates, a few half-dates for coffee or lunch, made out with a lot of intent.  And judging by Magnus’s texts about Maureen the other day, neither of them are seeing other people anymore, either.  Alec supposes that an item is the closest thing to what they are.

“Well, you have excellent taste.”

Lydia grins at him before picking up the camera and snapping some shots of people walking past the other side of the street, but Alec suddenly finds it impossible to focus on the case.  He slumps back in his seat a little and chews on this thumbnail as he thinks.  Are he and Magnus just dating.  Is Magnus his _boyfriend_?  Does Alec have a boyfriend he doesn’t even know about?  And if he does -- does he have a boyfriend he’s never slept with?

It’s not that Alec thinks sex is one hundred percent necessary for a relationship, but he really, really wants to have sex with Magnus, and Magnus has made it very obvious that he wants to have sex too.  Magnus had turned him down on their first real date, but since then they haven’t even had a chance to revisit the concept.  Their few hurried makeouts have gotten more intense every time, though, and the emotional side of their relationship has long since spiralled out of Alec’s control, is growing more intense every day.  
  
He fumbles his phone out of his pocket as quickly as he can.

[ Dec.10 -- 00:12 -- To: magnus bane ]

_clary has an art show tmorrow, do you want to come with me?  and dinner at my apt afterwards?_

He watches the street like he should be doing for a few minutes, but looks down again as soon as Magnus responds.

[ Dec.10 -- 00:14 -- From: magnus bane ]

_That sounds lovely!  Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!  You may have to remind me of the details when I’m sober though, darling!  In exchange I’ll show you a very sexy picture of me getting escorted off stage after trying to join in with the dancing pirates._

Alec stops himself from laughing out loud for Lydia’s sake, and shoves his phone back in his jeans before Magnus can text him anything else, but he’s still smiling through the rest of the night.

\-----

The stakeout gives them nothing.  
  
They stay there all night, but only a few people ever come and go.  None of them are girls with long black hair, and none of them look suspicious, no matter how meticulously Alec and Lydia photograph them and try to dig into their identities.  The building’s super leaves and then comes back in the middle of the night, and he looks creepy as hell, but he’s already been cleared of suspicion.  He has alibis for every one of the murders.  

It’s frustrating as hell, and Alec and Lydia eventually leave to go back to their apartments and get a little sleep.  They complain to each other the whole way back across Brooklyn, and Alec supposes that if there’s a silver lining to any of this, he feels a lot closer to Lydia after tonight.  Her lips are stained hideously blue from the slushies and she’d eaten all his peanuts, but they’d had a good time.  If Alec had gone on that stakeout with Jace, he would have had a lot of fun for some of it, but he also would have spent at least half the time aggressively annoyed.  He thinks he might begin to like working with level-headed Lydia.

She drops him back at his apartment with a wave, promising to see him at the precinct later, and Alec sheds his clothes the second he’s in the door, climbing into bed in his underwear and burying himself under his pile of thick duvets, barely remembering to set an alarm.  It feels weird not to send a goodnight text to Magnus, but Magnus is long asleep by this point.  Alec counts in his head -- if he drops off right that second he’ll be able to get six hours of sleep so long as he gets into work late, which the Sarg has cleared them to do.  
  
He drops off right that second, and falls into dreams of Magnus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> malec date next time, and things might get ~~steamy~~ (ooh la la). that should be up on saturday!
> 
> lemme know if you liked this chap (and if you spot any mistakes cus i've been sleeping like four hours a night and didn't quite proofread this oops)
> 
>  
> 
> [find me on tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, a week late is bad even for me. i was fasting for all of last week and i forget how foggy my brain gets when i don't eat, so i didn't feel up to getting this out til now -- hopefully the malec goodies will make up for the wait
> 
> i'm from the uk and the news about the referrendum has left me shocked and sick and terrified about the state of the world today, so if anyone else is feeling like that, i sincerely hope reading this can help take your mind off it the same way writing it did for me

It feels to Alec like suddenly everything in the world is moving incredibly quickly, but he goes into work and works on another case with Lydia and goes about his usual life and that same evening, they're heading to Clary’s art show, and he gets to see Magnus again.

Clary is making a career out of being a police sketch artist because it’s practically impossible to be the kind of artist she really wants to be in New York and still pay your rent, but she still works on her own stuff in her spare time.  She’s good, even Alec will admit, and she has more professional artist friends who pass her work on sometimes, so once in a while she gets shown at a gallery.  Alec’s only known her just up of a year, but he’s been dragged to three of her shows already -- it’s not like she’s had her own room at the MOMA or anything, but getting a few things into a multi-artist show at a well reputed gallery around here is still a big deal.   Alec doesn’t know a thing about art, but he can’t say he hates that they all get dragged to the opening every time this happens.  Izzy claims it’s important that all of Clary’s friends give her moral support, and Jace backs this up with a vengeance.  Alec just likes looking at pretty colours and eating free canapes.

This, though, is the first time he’s ever brought someone with him.  Clary and Magnus hardly know each other, so there’s no passing it off as just another of her friends coming to support her; everyone will know he’s Alec’s  _ date.   _ Alec feels the usual natural trepidation at thinking how much Jace and Izzy will probably tease him, but at the same time, as he walks into the lobby after work that night he finds he’s not dreading it nearly as much as he’d expect.  If he wants this thing with Magnus to last -- and oh hell does he seem to want that -- then Magnus is probably going to have to get used to Alec’s crazy friends.

They’re all meeting in the lobby to leave straight from work, but Alec stays until the last possible second to keep going over suspects in their serial killer case with Lydia, so by the time he gets downstairs he's nearly the last one there.  Jace is leaning against the wall chugging coffee, and Magnus and Izzy are stood chatting, Magnus doing something to Izzy’s hair that involves moving a few strands of it around nearly imperceptibly.  Alec grins as he makes his way over to them.

He’s about to say hi, but just then Clary stomps in, the last of all of them to arrive.  She steals Jace’s coffee, slurping the last of it down while he protests.

"We have to meet Simon outside, he's scared to come in," she says as a greeting, rolling her eyes and then throwing the coffee cup away.  Alec knows police buildings can seem intimidating but he's not quite sure what soft, nerdy little Simon thinks he has to be afraid of. He doesn't even illegally download music.   
  
"Why?" Jace asks, looking just as confused as Alec. "Is there a warrant out on him for excessive dorkiness or something?"   
  
"Last month he got really drunk and slept with Maureen, who works the front desk, and then never called her.  I keep telling him he's an idiot, don't worry."   
  
Alec's never really spoken more to Maureen than to say  _ morning  _ and  _ do you have this file _ , but he knows Izzy's friends with her -- they gossip in the break room and go out to drink wine with a bunch of the female officers every month.  And even from the gayest point of view in the world -- Alec's -- it's obvious that Maureen is gorgeous.  Simon really is an idiot. He remembers that Maureen had tried to ask out Magnus, too, last week, and feels a fleeting jolt of sympathy for her apparently terrible love life.

“We need to set that girl up with someone nice,” Magnus says, clearly on the same wavelength as Alec.  He finally finishes whatever he’d been doing to Izzy’s hair and spins to face Alec, rising onto his toes for a moment to drop a quick kiss onto the corner of Alec’s lips in greeting.  Alec blushes, and lets his hand rest on Magnus’s arm, trying to ignore the way his heart speeds up.

“Aww!” says Izzy, she and Clary both staring at them with identical endeared  expressions.  Alec rolls his eyes.  
  
“Shut up.”

Magnus just keeps grinning.

\-----

They collect Simon from outside and then head to the gallery.  It’s only a subway ride away, a cool little place in the centre of Brooklyn, informal enough that none of them need to change out of their work clothes.  Of course, Magnus is comprised of so much glitter and silk that he always looks ready to step into a designer’s wet dream, and Izzy is wearing one of her usual slightly work-inappropriate fancy dresses, so the two of them would probably fit in at the most prestigious gallery in New York.  Clary, on the other hand, is still in her jeans and converse, so Alec’s taking his cues from her.

As they cram into the subway car everyone else is talking about the show, listening to Clary explain her art with excitement, so nobody comments on the fact that Magnus stands so close to Alec their sides are pressed together.  It’s cramped on the subway, rushhour and all -- that’s a good enough excuse, right?  Alec holds onto the rail and tries to keep his eyes off Magnus, but it’s hard when he’s this close, warm and smelling like lovely, calming sandalwood as usual.

The arms pressed between them are at their sides, and Alec almost jolts when he feels the back of Magnus’s hand move against his.  He remembers holding Magnus’s hand last week, how good it had felt, and maybe Magnus is thinking the same thing too.  He doesn’t go to hold Alec’s hand, not quite, but as he asks Clary a question about her painting he also he moves so his arm is behind Alec’s, and links just their pinkies together.

It’s ridiculous, but such a tiny touch has Alec’s heart thumping in his chest.  His friends’ conversation becomes muffled in his ears, and all he can hear is the rush of his blood, all he can feel is that little point of contact where his finger is curled around Magnus’s.  Magnus is still joining in the conversation with Izzy and Jace and Simon and Clary, not even looking at Alec, but it’s all Alec can do to try and keep from blushing so hard his head falls off.

When they leave the train, Alec thinks Magnus will let go, but instead he just takes Alec’s hand properly.  Alec almost falls over.  Izzy and Jace both have the most shit-eating grins on their faces when they notice, but Alec finds himself not caring.  He’s never held hands with someone in front of his siblings before; he’s never even let them meet anyone he’s dating, apart from exactly one time he’d bumped into Izzy at a coffee shop while he was on a date.  Five years ago.  But with Magnus, it doesn’t really feel embarrassing or awkward -- or, it does, but not enough to make Alec want to stop.  Holding Magnus’s hand is too nice.

"You guys are too cute," Jace says, in a way that's definitely mocking but not overly malicious.  Alec's usual reaction to something like that would either be to hit Jace on the arm or tell him to shut up, but today, Magnus takes the lead.  

He grins even wider than Jace, presses himself closer to Alec's side, and says, happily,  "Oh, we're well aware."

And Alec can't stop himself from laughing.

\-----

The opening is nice.  Clary has five paintings in the show, but there’s a lot of other artists featured too, spanning over several rooms.  Some of it’s more traditional, which Alec is impressed by, and some of it's abstract but colourful, which he likes looking at, and the rest is confusing modern art.  Alec likes Clary’s stuff much better than that.  Her paintings are realistic but slightly mystical, and very detailed, mostly portraits with intricate surreal backgrounds and celtic symbols worked through.

The last painting features a completely naked Jace.  His face isn’t shown but it’s definitely him; Jace is shameless about nudity, and since Alec used to share a bedroom with him and Jace has spent more than one drunken night on his couch, Alec’s unfortunately rather familiar with his brother’s body.  Even if he wasn’t, Jace’s smug grin when they reach the painting would give it away.

“Circumcised,” Magnus notes objectively, raising an eyebrow, and then looks the real Jace up and down as if he’s inspecting him through his clothes.

"Uh, we're gonna go look at those weird sculptures," Alec decides, dragging Magnus away before Jace can reply to that.  Magnus lets himself be dragged, but only stays silent for a few steps.

"You know those are vagina sculptures, right?"

Alec had not known that, and immediately changes course.  

"Let's go see what's in the next room instead," he proposes, and Magnus laughs at him as they go.

The two of them branch off from the rest of the group after that.  While Jace commandeers the free drinks and Clary, Simon and Izzy talk to the gallery owner, Alec and Magnus make their way through the three rooms of the show, inspecting all the paintings and sculptures and odd installations and discussing them.  It's ridiculously fun.  More fun than Alec's ever had in an art gallery before in his life.

Alec’s not an arty person, but he thinks he shouldn’t be surprised that Magnus is.  Magnus has something to say about every piece they look at; the hand not holding Alec’s is used to gesture wildly.

“Do you paint?” Alec asks him, after Magnus finishes talking about the pre-Raphaelite style of one of the paintings.  Magnus snorts -- actually snorts, a rough little laugh out of his nose that he looks immediately embarrassed by, and Alec nearly bursts out laughing.

“No,” Magnus is quick to say, a self-effacing grin spreading over his face.  “Much as I love the idea, I was meant for science, not the arts.  I can’t do anything like that.  I can’t draw or craft or sing.  Back when we were roommates, Ragnor actually paid me to stop learning guitar.”

The thought of Magnus  _ not  _ being amazing at something barely computes in Alec’s brain, but somehow, it’s ridiculously endearing.  He imagines Magnus drawing terrible stick figures, warbling out karaoke, slowly murdering a simple tune on the guitar with a determined little frown on his face.  Alec can’t stop grinning.

“Don’t worry, I can’t do any of that either,” he says.  Then he pauses, looks down at Magnus, and says, “Okay, well, that’s not totally true.  I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell anyone else.”

“Cross my heart!”  Magnus looks very keen, so Alec shifts to face him more, leans in a little closer, and whispers down at him.

“I played the tuba in school band.”

Magnus bursts out into a peal of laughter.  Alec actually still has his tuba in the back of his closet and could probably remember every song he used to play in marching band, but it’s somehow the most embarrassing instrument in the world and he’s still not sure why his parents signed him up for it as a kid.  He tries very hard not to let anyone in the world find out about it, though Jace still has pictures of Alec in his band uniform and uses them as blackmail at every opportunity.  But somehow, seeing Magnus so amused by it, Alec doesn’t mind him knowing.  He’s actually kind of pleased to have an embarrassing past he can share with Magnus,i if it makes Magnus this happy to know.

“I’m sure you made the tuba very sexy,” Magnus says, pressing himself a little closer to Alec, but the way he’s still laughing doesn’t make the statement overly convincing.  Still, Alec finds himself grinning back.

Alec’s suddenly very struck by the fact that he’s never met anyone like Magnus before.

“Hey,” he says, nudging Magnus to get his attention.  “We’ve been here for an hour, that’s a good enough appearance.  D’you want to go back to mine and get some dinner?”

Magnus smiles at him.

“Sounds wonderful.”

\-----

They say goodbye to the others and give Clary a few last compliments, and then before Alec knows it, Magnus is sat cross-legged and barefoot on Alec’s sofa eating pizza far more gracefully than anyone has a right to, and Alec feels like he could stare forever.

“Sorry I didn’t have time to cook,” Alec says for what has to be the fifth time, and Magnus rolls his eyes.  Alec’d had every intention of making Magnus parmesan pumpkin fritters for their next date, only this one was so spur-of-the-moment that he didn’t even have time to get ingredients last night, and they’d gone to Clary’s opening right from work anyway.

“Alexander, it’s more than fine.  This is my favourite takeout!  And anyway, you should be taking it easy.  You were up all night doing important, hot detective things.”

Magnus grins and takes a bite of pizza while Alec blushes and shoves his shoulder.

“I’m not sure what you think is hot about me and Lydia sitting in a car eating peanuts and talking about murder for nine hours.”

“What’s hot is that you were there,” Magnus insists, still grinning.  He’s in an even flirtier mood than usual and Alec can’t bring himself to mind at all.  

While they eat their way through the rest of the pizza, Magnus talks some more about art.  He tells Alec about the year he spend studying in Europe while he was in college, all the galleries he’d visited in Paris and Florence with Catarina when she came to visit him.  Alec’s never met Catarina, and he’s never heard of any of the artists Magnus is talking about either, but he still finds himself enthralled by all the stories.

It’s not long before they finish the pizza.  Magnus leaves all the crusts, so Alec eats them for him, and afterwards they eat some cookies for dessert -- Alec has five boxes of Samoas in his cupboard because Detective Kimura’s daughter is in a girl scout troop and had gone around the precinct selling them.  Samoas are Magnus’s favourite, apparently, so Alec doesn’t even mind that they’re a weird thing to eat after pizza.

And then they finish their cookies, and Magnus stops talking.

Honestly, it’s not like Alec invited him here expecting anything.  Wanting, sure, but only in the way that he always seems to want Magnus these days.  But in that moment, they look at each other, and there’s no doubt in Alec’s mind that Magnus wants to kiss him.  It’s in his eyes, in the way he eases his body just a little closer on the sofa and uncrosses his legs, in the way he bites at his bottom lip just a little when Alec touches his arm.

Alec would be happy to just talk with Magnus all night, but the moment they’ve finished their food seems to be enough conversation for Magnus, like now that they physically  _ could  _ be kissing there’s no excuse not to.  Which -- well.  Alec can understand the logic of that.

“Alexander,” Magnus murmurs in the delicious way he always says Alec’s name, “May I kiss you?”   


Alec doesn’t even bother replying.  He just grabs Magnus around the waist and crushes their lips together.

Alec’s never kissed anyone who kisses like Magnus before.  It seems like with the two of them, they can turn kisses heated and frantic right from that start.  Three minutes ago they were having idly pleasant conversation in a mellow, low-lit room, sharing dinner, not an atom of urgency in either of them.  But the second they’re touching, Alec feels like his skin might explode.  He pushes himself as close as he can, holding on tight as Magnus grips at his hair, shoving his tongue into Magnus’s mouth and letting out a soft noise of pleasure before he can help it.

It’s a sudden and almost jarring change in atmosphere, but Alec can’t bring himself to care at all, not with how much he wants this.  Magnus is just as bad.  He runs his nails down the side of Alec’s neck, already knowing far too well how sensitive it is, and shifts so he can push Alec down onto his back, straddling him, just like the last time they were on this couch together.  It’s just as hot as it had been then.  Alec is already getting hard in his jeans -- he feels like a ridiculous teenager again, popping erections after five minutes of making out, but everything about Magnus is just so tantalising.  The way he smells, tastes, the hard warmth of his body pressed against Alec’s as he leans over.  Alec hopes they end up in this exact position a hundred more times.  A thousand.  He doesn’t think it’ll ever stop setting his blood on fire, to have Magnus above him like this.

And unlike the last time they were here, Magnus is showing no signs of wanting to slow things down.  Alec starts kissing down his neck in heavy wet kisses, but all too soon is met with the collar of his silky shirt.

“Can I take your shirt off?” Alec asks, hands twisting in the fabric as he pants against Magnus’s neck.

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Magnus gasps, and Alec immediately starts fumbling with buttons.  Of course it’s Magnus so the shirt is complicated and buttons are oddly shaped and after a minute Magnus just sits up and pulls the thing over his own head, flings it carelessly onto the floor.

Magnus is the most beautiful man Alec has ever known.  The sight of him sat up on Alec’s hips, his lithe muscled chest completely bare apart from the multitude of elegant necklaces, his smooth skin universally tan and perfect, makes Alec’s breath stop in his throat.  Magnus has small, dark nipples, and when Alec rubs his calloused thumb over one of them, Magnus’s eyes drop shut.  Alec scratches his nails down Magnus’s hard abs, runs a finger over his cute little outie belly button, and feels completely overwhelmed.

“Fuck, kiss me,” Magnus says desperately, ripping Alec’s shirt off too in one swift motion and then leaning down to crush their mouths together.  Alec is happy to oblige.  He gasps into Magnus’s mouth, wrapping his arms around Magnus’s hips and pulling him as close as possible, so all their bare skin can press together.  

Alec’s always felt a little self conscious of his body.  He knows he’s in good shape, has pretty big muscles and keeps himself fit.  But he also has -- lots of jagged stretch marks from the teenage growth spurt that left him so tall and then more from the year he suddenly went from scrawny-skinny to muscular all over.  Some coarse dark hair on his chest that he’s always hated.  A few odd scars from a lifetime of martial arts, and some injuries he’s had on the job, and the time he had his appendix out.  Even his tattoo, the stark black symbol for  _ brotherhood  _ he and Jace got together low on their stomachs, feels too rough when he compares it with Magnus’s perfect, unblemished skin.

But when Magnus pulls back from their desperate kiss again and looks down at Alec’s body, he doesn’t seem to be focusing on all that.  Alec is pretty sure he’s never felt more wanted in his entire life, actually.  Magnus’s pupils are blown wide with lust and his eyes glaze over, like he’s a million miles away as he stares at Alec’s chest, his mouth falling open a little, his fingers trailing the line down Alec’s stomach and tantalisingly close to the top of his jeans.  Magnus lets out a tiny little sound, halfway between a sigh and a squeak, and Alec finds himself laughing even through his haze of lust.

“You should never wear shirts,” Magnus tells him, running his hands up and down Alec’s chest again, digging his fingertips into the grooves of his abs.  “Why on earth would you ever cover any of this up, that should be illegal,  _ fuck.” _

Then he’s kissing Alec again, and pressing down with his hips, and  _ oh,  _ Alec shifts up against him and is achingly aware of how hard they both are.  He lets one of his hands slip down to grab at Magnus’s ass, pull him closer, and Magnus just rocks into the tough.  It’s torture and exquisite and Alec wants to not be wearing pants anymore.

“Do you want to go to my room?” he gasps into Magnus’s mouth.

“ _Definitely_ _ ,”  _ Magnus says, gripping the sides of Alec’s neck to pull him into another hard kiss.  Alec sits up off the sofa, still clutching at Magnus as tight as he can, and they both stumble up to standing, Alec already trying to figure out how he can get Magnus into his bed without breaking his kiss, wondering if he should just scoop Magnus up and carry them, and  _fuck_ it would be hot to have Magnus in his arms like that, and Magnus is biting down on Alec's lip and -- 

And then Alec’s phone rings.

“ _ Fuck,”  _ he curses, pulling away from Magnus’s mouth and just resting their foreheads together for a moment, panting.  It’s his work ringtone.  If it were anything else he’d just ignore it, he'd smash the freaking thing against the wall, but -- “Fuck, that’s my work ring, I have -- I have to get it.  It’ll be two seconds.   _ Two seconds.” _

Magnus seems a little dazed, but nods and leans away from Alec a little, keeping his hands on Alec’s neck so he can’t get too far.  Alec digs his phone out of his pocket, breath hitching when the movement makes his jeans rub against his erection, and answers with just a glance at his caller ID.  It’s Lydia. 

“What?” he snaps into the receiver, not caring at all if it’s rude. Magnus kisses his neck and Alec barely hears Lydia’s next words.  Except -- he does.

“Alec, I did it!” her tinny voice says, a whirlwind of excitement radiating out of the phone, and Alec’s stomach drops.  “You need to get down to the station,  _ now.   _ I solved the serial killer case!”

Oh.

For a moment, Alec feels the strange sensation of overwhelming joy and crushing disappointment both rising and sinking inside him.  He supposes his happiness at getting a killer off the streets should eclipse his desire for sex.  But he really,  _ really  _ wants to have sex with Magnus.  
  
“You have the worst timing in the word,” he tells her, but he runs a finger over Magnus’s swollen lips, looks at him apologetically, and finishes, “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you might notice the chapter count has gone up. i have nooo idea why i was so optimistic to think i could be concise enough to write this story in 25 chapters. i'm p busy in july but updates should still be coming more frequently, cus i want to get this finished by the end of august!
> 
> the next chapter will be on monday, and a LOT will happen!!! so yanno keep ur peepers open for that. and lemme know what you thought of this chap and i'll love you, all your feedback is the reason i find it in myself to keep this story going <33
> 
> [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a shorter one today, but chapter twenty is turning into the friggin next volume of the odyssey so i'll make up for it then ;) ;) ;)

Magnus is the most understanding guy in the world, understands the pressures of their line of work, laughs it off even, but the fact that they both still have boners as they're leaving Alec's apartment helps with absolutely nothing.  Alec takes his car, drops Magnus to the subway, gives him both the shortest and hottest goodbye kiss it's possible to have, and then speeds to the station.

By the time he gets there, his erection's thankfully gone, but he's still feeling keyed up and horny and restlessly irritated about everything in the world.  It's always weird making his way into the precinct at night, too.  Obviously there are people working, since crime isn't known for taking nights off, but the detective squad are all usually on a nine to five schedule, so their floor is empty when the elevator doors open into the bullpen.  Empty, that is, except for Lydia, who is sat at her desk in the mostly-dark room looking frazzled and almost manically triumphant.

"This had better be good," he tells her.  His horniness is dropping away by the second -- he never thought he'd be happy for the grossness of the precinct and the weird smell that always seems to be coming out of the break room, but it's pretty impossible to be turned on in here.  It gets even  _more_ impossible to be turned on when Lydia stands up and shoves a bunch of photos of murder victims right in his face.

"One of my CIs knows someone who used to live in that building," she tells him, her voice low and clearly building to something, she has a trump card here, and Alec hadn't really doubted her when she said she'd solved the case but it suddenly  _hits_ him now that she clearly  _has._ "The second victim, the one without a permanent address listed, apparently she was subletting there the month before she was killed.  That's all of them except the first one living in that one building, Alec!  No way it's a pattern.  We didn't see anything on our stakeout except the creepy super, right?"

"Right."  Alec has no clue where she's going with this.  Maybe she's had one too many slushies and the sugar has finally gone to her brain.

"Well, that's what we get for only staking the place out for one night.  Creepy super has an alibi.  But you know who doesn't have an Alibi?  Creepy super's even creepier brother, who's been crashing on his couch for the better part of six months."

All of a sudden her triumphant expression makes sense.  Alec could marry Lydia’s informant.

"Please tell me we have a name," he begs, and she just grins.

\-----

They pull up the guy's record.  And oh  _boy_ does he have a record.  Most of it's just petty stuff, a few shoplifting charges and enough reckless driving that he apparently got his licence taken away, but there's one attempted sexual assault that he actually spent some time in jail for.  The woman he tried to attack had long black hair, just like all the victims in this case.  That's not even all of it, though -- because he's been booked before, his record brings up his mugshot, and Alec recognises him in a second.  
  
It’s the missing hotdog vendor who reported their last body.

This is their guy.  Alec and Lydia know this is their guy.  Even Jace, who isn’t technically supposed to have anything to do with this case anymore but begs to know what’s going down when he comes in the next morning to find Alec and Lydia practically paper-macheing the briefing room in witness reports, knows this is their guy.  Alec has never been more relieved to have a case solved in his life.  
  
Of course, solved is not over with.  Alec and Lydia spend the next two days working without a break.  It turns out Lydia’s informant knows some other women in the building who are all willing to come forward about the fact that he’s threatened them, even tried to break into one of their apartments in the middle of the night.  Lydia takes as many statements as she can, and then she and Alec accidentally take a nap on top of their files in the break room because they haven’t slept in two days, but Jace wakes them up by throwing crullers at their heads and they get their second wind.  They get warrants to search the apartment building and find a bag under the guy’s couch.

It makes Alec a little sick, but in that bag is all the evidence they need to put Aaron Whitwell away for life.

They arrest him when he comes home.  He tries to run but makes it about five steps before Alec catches him, and then he’s cuffed and they’re leading him out to Lydia’s car.

“You have the right to remain silent,” Alec recites to him as they walk.  “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.  You have the right to an attorney --”

That’s the moment when Whitwell starts smiling.  And Alec has never been more creeped out in his life.

\-----

It’s clear that Whitwell’s been through this rodeo before, on the handful of petty crimes and one attempted assault that make up his wrap sheet, because he refuses to talk without his lawyer present.  They give him his one phone call and the number to the public defender’s office, and then Alec takes an hour long nap while they wait for someone to turn up.  

When he wakes up, he has a few texts from Magnus.  None of them ask what’s going on with the case, they’re all just little descriptions of his day so far, but evidently he’s at work now.  Alec glances at the clock; it’s only the middle of the morning, they have plenty of time left in the day, and since nobody’s come to wake him up he assumes there hasn’t been any progress on Whitwell’s lawyer.  Alec texts him back.

[ Dec.12 -- 10:42 -- To: magnus bane ]

_can you take a break in a minute? want 2 get coffee with me? im going stir crazy_

He finds Lydia chugging coffee at her desk and asks, “Can you hold things down without me for an hour?”

“Sure,” she agrees easily.  “There’s a ton of processing to do before we can get him in the interrogation room, and he claims his lawyer will be stuck in traffic for an indefinite amount of time.  Asshole.  Where are you off to?”

Alec finds that he actually doesn’t mind telling her.  For someone who has always been so closed off about his personal life that he doesn’t even like revealing his shoe size, this is a new feeling for Alec.

“Gonna grab some coffee with Magnus.  I was with him when you called the other night but I haven’t got to see him since then.”

Lydia smiles, looking at him a little too knowingly.

“Go, go, I’ll hold things down here,” she says.  “But if you’re going to that coffee place across the street, can you do me a favour?  Go to the store next door and get me a slushie?”

“I’ll get you two,” he promises, and makes his escape.

\-----

Magnus meets him across the street.  He’s leaning against a wall texting when Alec gets there, looking so much like an island of calm in the middle of Alec’s chaotic day that an almost physical wave of relief washes over Alec at the sight of him.

“Hey,” says Alec, going up and kissing Magnus before he can respond.  It’s just a quick kiss hello but also probably a touch too intense for a public setting, and Magnus looks a little dazed when they pull apart.  

They only stay at the coffee shop for half an hour, but it's the best part of Alec’s day.  He drinks triple-shot black coffee while Magnus judges him over the top of a chai latte, and explains a little about the case, and then Magnus distracts him by talking about the competitions he's set up with the weekend forensics guys to see who can get the weirdest decoration into their lab and get away with it.  Alec has never been so happy to not talk about his case.  He feels like it's been eating his brain alive for the last two days. Probably longer than that.  Probably since they first realised that hotdog vendor wasn't just a witness.

But -- they've caught the guy now.  Alec realises it with a sharp jolt that swiftly turns to joy in his stomach.  Whitwell hasn't confessed yet but he might still when they interrogate him, and regardless, they have enough evidence to put him to trial either way.  There's still a whole lot of work to be done.  But none of it is life or death anymore.  No more girls are gonna end up strangled on a street corner if Alec takes a night off.

“Hey, do you wanna do something tonight?” he asks Magnus, rather suddenly.  “I mean, I should probably go home and sleep for a few hours when I get off work, and definitely take a shower, but -- after that? We could get dinner.  I promise I won’t have to run out to catch a serial killer this time.”

It's gotten to the point where Alec isn't worried Magnus will say no to these kinds of things.  If he was busy, sure, but not because he doesn't _want_ to -- Alec isn't facing flat out rejection from asking Magnus on a date.  It takes so much of the nerves away that Alec finds himself smiling before Magnus has even answered.

“Well, now you’ve taken all the mystery out of it!” Magnus says, but his eyes are sparkling.  “I suppose I’ll say yes anyway.  Why don’t you come over to my loft?  Usually I would worry about offending your delicate foodie sensibilities by ordering takeout, but I think you deserve a day off from cooking today.”

Alec’s never been to Magnus’s place before.  The thought is more exciting than it should be.

Unfortunately Alec has to get back to the precinct and see what’s happening with the case, if the lawyer is there yet or anything, but Lydia hasn’t texted him so he assumes nothing urgent has happened while he’s been mainlining his caffeine.  
  
“I can finally meet Chairman Meow,” he jokes, as they start pulling on their jackets.

“Ahh, meeting the family, such an important step.”  
  
Alec laughs, and holds the door open for Magnus as they leave.  He doesn’t forget to stop next door and get Lydia her slushies.

\-----

The lawyer still hasn’t turned up when Alec gets back.  Lydia heads off with her two slushies for a much deserved break, and Alec checks Whitwell is still secured in the interrogation room before heading to his desk.  He’s handcuffed and the door’s locked and there’s two uniforms stationed outside, but Alec somehow still feels antsy, like he should be watching the guy.  He always feels like this after he’s made a high profile arrest -- Alec has a tendency to take on imagined responsibilities that he’s all too aware of.  So he forces himself not to go and lurk in the observation room staring at Whitwell through the two-way glass, and instead makes a start on some paperwork.

Less than ten minutes go by, though, before their civilian administrator comes over and tells him the lawyer has arrived.  Alec could almost groan in relief.  He just wants to get this interrogation over with.

“ _Finally_ ,” he says, shutting down his computer quickly.  “Can you go and tell Branwell?  I’ll meet her down there.”

He gathers up the files with the crime scene photos, details of the investigation, and lists of evidence they’ve got, and then heads back to the interrogation room.  Everything’s as he left it, only this time, in addition to the guards waiting outside, there’s a small, pretty Asian woman in a suit and stilettos that would make even Izzy proud.  Her hair is softly curled and there’s a smile on her lips, but somehow it looks anything but happy, and sends a shiver down Alec’s spine.  She somehow looks equal parts adorably unthreatening and sharply inhumane.

“Detective,” she says, elegantly shifting her briefcase onto her other arm and offering Alec her hand.  Her nails are about an inch long and look like they could kill someone.  He shakes it very tentatively.  “I’m Aaron Whitwell’s counsel.’

“Lightwood,” he introduces himself, dropping her hand the second he can.  “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Camille Belcourt.”  She smiles at him with a few too many teeth, and there’s a pit in the bottom of Alec’s stomach that knows this woman is going to be trouble.  “Shall we begin?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL THEN
> 
> (i just wanna promise right off the bat that there is gonna be no major malec drama or any miscommunication between them or the like, BUT it's always fun to have an outsider making trouble riiiight)
> 
> lemme know what you thought of the case wrapping up! this was never meant to get so long, since this fic isn't focusing on any overarching case plotlines, so i'm quite happy i dont have to keep coming up with new parts of it ahaha
> 
>  
> 
> [my tumblr xxx](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was originally longer but i have a Terrible No Good computer that deleted some of it and uuuugh i had to write a bunch on my phone and it's 4.30 am and i'm going camping tomorrow SO IM JUST POSTING THIS AND IF THERE ARE WEIRD AUTOCORRECT ERRORS IM SORRY PLS LEMME KNOW
> 
> hella m content in this one as well. hooooooo boy is there hella m content. if you don't wanna read that, stop at the point where they get up to recycle their takeout containers :'') aaand it pretty much goes to the end, but you can ctrl+F to the line ' _“Mmm, Alexander,” Magnus says quietly '_ if you wanna read the last couple paras once it's done!

The interrogation is gruelling, but Whitwell won’t confess to a thing and his lawyer doesn’t let him say more than a word at a time to them anyway, so Alec and Lydia end up cutting it pretty short.  They both need to rest and regroup, but still, neither of them are gonna be too crushed if they can’t get him to admit to anything.  It'll go to trial, and no matter how good this Belcourt woman is, there’s no way she’s gonna get him off after what they found under his couch.  

At three in the afternoon the captain sends Alec and Lydia home, since they've been living off naps in the break room all weekend.  Alec would usually feel weird about leaving work early but today he's nothing other than relieved.  He goes home and just strips in his living room, falls into bed in his boxers, and sleeps for four hours.  When he wakes up his brain is finally working again, and after a shower, too, he feels so refreshed that he's ready to take on the world.

The world, or a date with Magnus Bane.  

While Alec was asleep, Magnus sent him two texts.  One just had his address, and the other said he'd order takeout to arrive around nine, but it was fine if Alec wanted to sleep longer than that.

Alec doesn't want to sleep longer.  He wants to do the opposite of sleep.  He gets dressed in some fresh but simple clothes, looks up Magnus’s street and decides to take the subway rather than his car, and is ringing the buzzer on an unfamiliar building by eight thirty.

 _“WHO GOES THERE_?” Magnus bellows through the intercom.

“Uh, it's Alec?” He can't help the grin that's already tugging at his face.  “I'm your date for the evening?”

“Oh, Alexander!” Magnus’s voice is bright and innocent in a moment.  “You're early!  Come on up!”

The door springs open, and Alec heads inside.

The building doesn't look like much from the street, and Alec has to go up in a rickety old service elevator that he frankly has no trust in, so he’s not really expecting the sight that greets him when he finally sets foot in Magnus’s loft.  The place is _huge,_ big by regular standards let alone New York City ones.  The open dining room slash living room is probably the size of Alec’s whole apartment, and there's a corridor with four other doors leading off it.  One wall is almost completely windows, leading out onto a long balcony filled with plants and showing a stunning view of the city lights in the darkness.  Inside, everything Alec can see is elegant and colourful, extravagant art hanging on the brick walls, leather bound books stacked on a floor-to-ceiling shelf, an impressive selection of booze on one of those old-timey drinks carts, oriental rugs interspersed with dark floorboards.  The sofa’s embroidered silk and looks like it cost more than Alec’s car.  

The whole place suits Magnus perfectly.  Lush and extravagant and just a little bit intimidating.

“Either you sold your soul or they're paying the forensics department a whole lot more than they're paying cops,” Alec finally says, dragging his eyes away from the furnishings and looking to Magnus.  Magnus is louchely barefoot with a glass of wine in hand, and he snorts at Alec’s comment.

“I inherited a company when my stepfather died.” He stretches onto his toes to kiss Alec’s cheek and then meanders into the middle of the room, stretching his arms out in display.  “I don't even know what the company was, but I do know it bought a very nice apartment when I sold it.”

“You can say that again,” Alec agrees.

“Come on, I'll give you the tour.” Magnus twines his free hand with Alec’s and leads the way down the corridor, Alec happy to trail behind him and be shown into these little pieces of Magnus’s life.

The first of the four doors leads to the bathroom, which contains a big clawfoot tub as well as a shower.  The next is the kitchen, all marble countertops and dark wood, beautiful but hectically stocked with a mixture of both food and scientific equipment.  Then it's the study, every wall covered in more huge books and a stately oak desk stacked with scientific journals and complex lab equipment.  Alec's getting the feeling that Magnus might be a little bit of a workaholic.  It must be why they get on so well.

“And this is my room,” Magnus finishes, his hand resting on the last door knob but not opening it.  He gives Alec a _look_ , somewhere between appraising and fiery.  Alec looks at the door.

“When did you say the takeout’s arriving again?” he asks, his voice suddenly coming out a little thicker.

“Should be here at nine.”

Alec checks his phone.  It's a quarter to.

“Okay,” he says, letting his eyes trail slowly up Magnus’s body for a moment before turning and heading back to the living room.  “You can show me your bedroom later, then.”

It's a moment before Magnus follows him.

\-----

Magnus pays for the takeout when it arrives, and they set up on his couch instead of his fancy dining table or the island in his kitchen.  Alec likes that; it reminds him of being back in his own apartment, lack of adult furniture and all, and Magnus’s loft is suddenly a bit less intimidating.

Alec doesn't realise how hungry he is until he gets his first smell of Chinese.  Proper meals, like chunks of sleep lasting more than an hour, are something he'd neglected during his weekend work marathon, and cereal bars from the precinct vending machine can only sustain a man for so long.  He shoves a hefty portion into his mouth, not caring to try and make his table manners more glamorous for Magnus’s sake -- and then almost spits it right back out again in surprise.

“Oh shit, this is the best Chinese I've ever had,” he says, barely resisting the urge to moan as he swallows.  Okay, so maybe he does actually moan a little bit.  “Am I delirious with hunger or have you found the best takeout in New York City?  Possibly the whole world?”

Magnus lets out a thrilled laugh, leaning a little into Alec’s shoulder where they're angled close together on the couch.

“In my many years of living here, I've done extensive research and narrowed down the rankings of pretty much every restaurant in the delivery radius.  I did mention I'm not much of a cook, right?”

He has mentioned it.  Frequently.  Alec suddenly thinks that he should try and teach Magnus to cook -- they could spend a whole day in the kitchen, at some point where they’re not both so busy.  Alec would like a cooking date, he thinks.

“I never thought I'd say this, but your complete lack of culinary skills might have paid off,” he says wryly, and sets about demolishing the rest of the carton of chow mein.  Magnus talks a little, Alec making an effort to give the right reactions through his mouthfuls, but mostly Magnus seems content to just eat his own dinner at a more relaxed pace and watch Alec.  Closely.  Weirdly, Alec doesn't feel self conscious about it at all.

It's several minutes before they're interrupted.  But this, unlike Max on Alec’s doorstep or work commitments or Lydia calling at the worst moment possible, isn't an interruption Alec’s upset about.  There's just a bit of frantic meowing outside the door, and then all of a sudden a tiny, ridiculously fluffy cat comes streaking through the apartment and leaps onto the sofa.

Alec laughs, and sets down his food for a moment to reach over and scratch the cat’s ears.  It slinks a little suspiciously into Magnus’s lap, quite clearly staking its claim.

“Chairman Meow, this is Alec,” Magnus says, with all the grace of someone conducting a diplomatic introduction.  “He's who daddy’s been dating, and as you can see he's extremely gorgeous, so please try not to scare him off.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Alec says seriously.  Chairman Meow glares and hisses for exactly three seconds, before suddenly leaping at Alec.  For a moment Alec’s alarmed, thinking he's about to lose an eye at the claws of a cat named after a pun, which Jace would never let him live down.  But instead of maiming him, Chairman just gives one scratchy lick to Alec’s bare forearm, and then curls up in _his_ lap instead.

“He likes you!” Magnus exclaims happily, gesturing with one triumphant chopstick.  Alec is still recovering from his terror of a moment before, but he finds it in himself to smile.

“I guess this means I'm allowed to come back,” he jokes.  Magnus looks at him in a way that can be described as nothing other than _warm_.

“Any time you like, Alexander.”

Alec’s face flushes, and he folds down, pressing a kiss into Chairman Meow’s fur.  For a moment, he pretends it’s meant for Magnus.

“So, uh, how long have you had him?” he asks, trying to deflect any serious emotional moments until they’ve at least finished their dinner.

“Mm, let me think.” Magnus counts on his fingers for a moment.  “Wow, eight years!  Time flies, doesn’t it, Chairman?”

Chairman Meow sneezes.

“I’ve always kind of wanted a pet,” Alec admits.  “But I’m always too busy with work and my building doesn’t allow animals, anyway.  I guess that’s one of the benefits of owning your place.”

“Among many,” Magnus agrees, grinning.  The three of them are curled ridiculously close on the sofa, Chairman purring in Alec’s lap now, and Alec can’t remember the last time he felt so easily happy.  “I didn’t actually get him for very happy reasons, though.”

He doesn’t continue; after a moment, Alec looks at him, but he knows Magnus doesn’t feel comfortable talking about a lot of his past and Alec doesn’t want to push.

“Oh?” he says, as neutrally as he can manage.  There’s vulnerability in Magnus’s eyes that he’s clearly trying to hide, so Alec doesn’t mention it, just sits a little more solidly against Magnus’s side.

“Yeah.  I’d just gone through what remains to this day the worst breakup of my life.  I was only twenty, which seems ridiculously young now, but at the time I was convinced I was all grown up, of course.  I wanted to propose to a girl from my foster home who I’d been dating for two years.  I’d bought the ring and everything when I found out she was cheating on me.”  He pauses, but doesn’t seem to be looking for a response, so Alec doesn’t say anything.  He feels a little sick thinking about Magnus getting his heart broken.  “I was a total wreck afterwards, for ages.  It was Catarina who told me I should get a pet.  She had the idea that if I had something else to look after, I’d be forced to look after myself, too.  I think I yelled at her at the time.  But here I am, hopelessly devoted cat father, so she must have had some sort of a clue.”

“She sounds like she gives good advice,” Alec says softly.  Magnus smiles at him, and the sadness is gone from his eyes again.

“She does.   But don’t ever tell her I said that -- I like to leave all my friends under the impression that I never listen to them at all.  It keeps them humble.”

\-----

Eventually Magnus shoos the Chairman away so Alec can get back to his food, but it takes a while.  As Chairman Meow stalks out onto the balcony, Magnus seems inordinately happy, and Alec gets the feeling he's just passed some sort of test with flying colours.

“So is everything wrapped up with your case now?” Magnus asks when they fall back into conversation.  Alec's been a little glad that they've avoided work talk so far if he's honest, but he suppose it's unavoidable given how much of his weekend it's taken up.

“As wrapped up as anything can be before trial,” he says with a shrug.  That about sums it up but Magnus is looking right at him, face attentive and interested, so Alec keeps going. “We found all the evidence we need in his apartment -- I expect you'll be seeing all that down in the lab tomorrow morning, actually, so thanks in advance -- but he's refusing to confess.  He's got this really good lawyer, which is weird for a lowlife who's been living off a couch, but I guess he must have connections.  Anyway, she won't let him say a word to us.  He can barely cough without her warning us that it's not legally binding.  She's terrifying.  And she knows he's guilty, but she couldn't care less.”

“Sounds like a piece of work.”  Alec definitely agrees with that observation.  He stabs a piece of carrot rather forcefully with a chopstick.  “What's her name?  Raphael knows lots of shady lawyer types, maybe I've met her.”

 _Camille Belcourt_ is on the tip of his tongue, but Alec stops the answer at the last second.  If Magnus does know her through his prosecutor friend then they're just gonna be talking about that, and it'll seem important because their jobs are important, but they’re almost finished with dinner and Alec doesn't want to get into a whole complex conversation about court proceedings and corrupt defence attorneys right now.  He's actually rather hoping they'll put their mouths to use for something other than talking, soon.  So instead he just shakes his head.

“Let's talk about it tomorrow,” he suggests.  “I just want to forget about work for a while.  It's all I've been allowed to think about since Friday.  C’mon, tell me something else -- how was your day?”

Magnus looks amused through a mouthful of rice.

“If you want to get off the topic of work that's an odd way of going about it, darling.”  Magnus pulls his legs up into the couch so his feet are tucked under Alec’s thigh, playfully jabs him with a chopstick, and Alec feels a little giddy.  “I was at the precinct.”

Alec rolls his eyes, and slots one of his arms under Magnus’s knees, completely tangling them up. It feels so effortlessly intimate that he actually gets a head rush for a moment.

“Well tell me about the non-work parts of your day,” he insists.  “Did you see Iz?  I haven't even spoken to her since Friday.”

Three days is not a long time for most adults to go without speaking to their sister, but for Alec it's weird, and he hopes she's doing okay.  Magnus looks at him fondly.

“You're far too overprotective of her,” he says, as if he could read Alec’s thoughts.  But then he does launch into dramatic retelling of what he and Izzy had gotten up to during their morning coffee break, and Alec listens happily to every word, feeling more and more calmed as he revels in the fact that two of his favourite people in the world get on so well.

By the time Magnus has described redressing the skeleton and taping Izzy’s shoes back together with medical tape, they’ve both finished eating.  Alec’s in no rush to get anything done, but he heaves himself off the ridiculously comfy sofa anyway and helps Magnus carry all their empty cardboard takeout containers to the kitchen to throw them into the recycling.

Magnus offers Alec another drink and starts to head back to the couch, but Alec grabs him by the wrist in the kitchen doorway, stopping him in his tracks.  Their bodies press together for a moment, pull apart as they both shift, still in the middle of their movements, then press back together again.  Alec can feel the moment Magnus takes a deep breath, can feel the hard presence of Magnus’s chest pressed against his, the seam of Magnus’s jeans rough under Alec’s hands when he drops them to Magnus’s hips.  The air changes around them.  The sweet laziness of their dinner is becoming charged with something else.

“I don’t need a drink,” he says, feeling uncharacteristically confident in his desperate wanting.  “Want to show me your room now?”

“You are just full of good ideas,” Magnus says, and surges up to kiss him.

Alec almost thinks he could kiss Magnus forever, except for how it would probably kill him with how much just kissing makes him want _more._ Magnus sucks hard on Alec’s lip and it has Alec hitching in a breath, scrambling to try and pull Magnus’s body closer to him, leaning so that Magnus is bent back against the door frame and Alec can brace a hand above his head, the other sliding into the small of Magnus’s back and tugging their stomachs together.  Magnus lets his back arch with a low little moan that vibrates on Alec’s mouth, sends tingles of warmth spiralling through him.

Magnus’s hands find their way into Alec’s hair, tugging at it as he kisses Alec deeply, filthily, and the sharp sensation of his hair being pulled only makes the rest of it more amazing.  It barely takes a minute before Alec’s cock is twitching in his jeans, starting to get hard even though it’s barely pressed up against Magnus’s thigh, and he’s struggling to breathe in the right rhythm as he licks into Magnus’s mouth.

“Bedroom,” Magnus reminds him in a split-second gap between kisses, and right, that’s where they were going, because there’s so way in hell they can do everything Alec wants to do pressed up against a kitchen doorway.  Or -- Alec’s strong and he could probably hold Magnus up against a wall but he files that thought away for future evaluating because he’s got enough ridiculously sexy stuff going on in reality.

Pulling away from Magnus’s mouth is probably the hardest thing he’s ever done, but Magnus is grabbing at Alec’s hand and dragging him down the corridor, both of them moving at a pace slightly too fast to really be called walking.  When they burst into Magnus’s bedroom, Alec barely looks around, just notices the big four poster bed covered in dark blue silk sheets, and then Magnus is kissing him again.  He stops almost as soon as he starts, though, and Alec whines lowly in disappointment.

“Close the door, or Chairman will come in and get traumatised,” Magnus says.  Okay, that’s an easy enough command.  Alec slams the door behind him and then grabs at magnus again, kissing him hard, circling his arms so tight around Magnus’s waist there’s not an inch between their bodies.  Magnus moans into his lips, letting his teeth catch on Alec’s skin, sending slashes of heat through Alec’s body and right down into his dick.

“Can I take your shirt off?” Magnus asks, though he’s already fumbling with the hem of it.  Alec nods so far his head bumps against Magnus’s, and they both let out a tiny little laugh.

“Only if I can take yours off too.”  Alec leans in to kiss Magnus hard for just one impossibly hot moment before dragging his lips back and tugging his t-shirt over his head, flinging it behind him without a care as to where it lands.

“ _Fuck_ , you’re far too beautiful,” Magnus says, scratching down Alec’s bare chest while Alec somehow makes quick work of Magnus’s buttons with his shaking fingers.  Beautiful isn’t something he’s ever really believed about himself, but he doesn’t really have it in him to do anything other than believe Magnus in that moment.  

As soon as he’s pushed Magnus’s silky shirt off his shoulders, they finally, _finally_ tumble onto the bed.  They’ve made out on Alec’s couch and at work and on a couple of their dates but this is the first time they’ve ever been in a bed together, and just being able to stretch out into whatever position they want is luxurious.  Alec climbs on top of Magnus, grabbing one of Magnus’s thighs and hitching it up around his waist so their cocks are pressing together through their jeans, using his other hand to brace himself on the bed.  Magnus just throws his arms around Alec’s neck and yanks him back down into a frantic wet kiss.

“Mmm, _mmm,”_ Magnus is moaning into Alec’s lips, his breath catching whenever Alec pushes their hips together.  Heat is pulsing through Alec’s whole body, like his heart is pumping out thick bursts of fire with every beat, and he can’t help the noises that are escaping him too as they start to rock together in a proper rhythm.  He’s completely hard now, he’s beyond completely hard, and he can feel that Magnus is too, and it’s all spiralling into something that’s gonna be over so much quicker than Alec wants it to, cus Alec wants this feeling to last _forever._

“Pants,” he says to Magnus the next time they break apart for air.  It’s the only word he can really get out in that moment, not quite a question or a suggestion, but Magnus seems to understand him anyway and shoves his hands between them.  For a moment his hand cups Alec’s erection and Alec swallows hard, his hips bucking against the pressure.  It’s all he can do not to moan when Magnus squeezes him a little before suddenly pulling back again, and attacking the zipper of Alec’s jeans.

He gets them undone quickly and shoves them down, dragging his underwear with them, until his hands are clutching at Alec’s bare ass.  Alec kisses him again while he wriggles around enough to kick his pants off the rest of the way, and then he’s completely naked, stretched out on top of Magnus with his aching cock pushing up against Magnus’s zipper, painful but such delicious relief at the same time that he can barely stop himself from rolling his hips into the feeling.

“Can I?” he asks as his hands find the button of Magnus’s jeans, and then second Magnus nods, Alec is tugging them off too.  Magnus isn’t wearing underwear.  Alec could nearly die.

Magnus has the prettiest dick Alec has ever seen.  He sits up as he tugs the pants down Magnus’s legs, works them off his thin feet one at a time, and then when they’re both finally bare Alec just stays sat like that for a moment and _looks._ Magnus is all tan skin and mussed hair and pink lips, pink nipples, swollen pink cock straining to his stomach, spread out on dark blue sheets like a dream with his legs spread around Alec.  Alec doesn’t know how he _ever_ got this luck, how this ever became his life.  He has to reach down and jerk himself off for a moment just to get rid of some of the pressure that’s already building in him just from seeing Magnus like this.

“You’re beautiful,” he manages to tell Magnus.  Magnus preens a little, but is clearly done with being stared at, tugs Alec back down on top of him and kisses for a moment, one hand grabbing Alec’s ass and the other framing his face.  Alec gasps.  “What do you want to do?”

Magnus’s hand slips from where it’s framing his face, his fingers trailing down to press at Alec’s swollen lips.

“Do you have a preference?” Magnus asks.  Alec shakes his head, letting one of Magnus’s fingertips fall into his mouth and sucking on it.  Magnus makes a soft, helpless little sound.  “O- _oh --_ okay.  You can fuck me, then.”

Alec moans around Magnus’s finger.  He wasn’t lying that he doesn’t have much of a preference for what to do in bed, but right now, the thought of getting to be inside Magnus is the closest to heaven he’s ever felt.

Alec pushes their bodies even closer together and nips at Magnus’s fingers and then leans down to kiss him, and for a while, that’s all they do.  Usually just kissing would help calm things down but Alec’s not sure he’ll _ever_ calm down from the way Magnus is making him feel right now, the rushing intensity building in him just from the heat of Magnus’s bare body, the feel of his soft lips, the gentle scratch of his nails as his hands trail all over Alec’s body.  It’s all too much, and Alec needs to do something _now._

He pulls away from Magnus’s lips with a wet pop and starts sucking on his neck instead.  Magnus makes a soft noise of pleasure and winds his fingers into Alec’s hair, but Alec doesn’t stop there; he bites down Magnus’s collarbone, and then squirms a little further down the bed so he can kiss Magnus’s chest, run a curious tongue along his nipples.  Alec’s nipples have never been very sensitive but from the way Magnus responds, gasping and pushing his hips up so that his cock ruts against Alec’s stomach, it seems like his are.  Alec sucks hard on one and then bites at the other and files away all Magnus’s gasps and movements and exhalations of _Alexander_ in his mind for later use.  Then he works his way even further down, Magnus’s dick pressing up into his chest, and Alec kisses down his stomach, around his cute little outtie belly button, down the thin trail of soft hair that leads right down to his pubes.  His body is so hairless compared to Alec’s, but the dark nest of curls framing the bottom of his cock somehow makes Alec’s mouth water, and he brushes his fingers through them for a moment.

“Alec,” Magnus gasps up above him, shifting on the bed.  His erection bumps against Alec’s jaw.

“Can I blow you?” Alec checks, finally wrapping one hand loosely around Magnus but not using his mouth just yet.  Magnus laughs, breathless and joyful.

“The answer to that will _always_ be yes,” he promises, and threads his fingers through Alec’s hair.  Alec’s smiling as he first leans down and presses just one little kiss to the head of Magnus’s cock.  There’s precome beading at the tip and Alec licks it off.

“Don’t come,” he warns.  “I want you to come when I’m fucking you.”

“I make no promis- _ah.”_ Magnus loses his breath halfway through a word as Alec suddenly sinks down on his cock.  He keeps his hand at the base but doesn’t tease, just starts slowly working his mouth up and down Magnus.  Alec’s been told he’s good at giving head, before, but it’s been a while since he’s done it to anyone and Magnus’s dick is pretty wide, so Alec feels kind of sloppy, some spit sliding out from between his spread lips as he pulls off with a wet pop and then works his way back down again, tonguing at Magnus’s foreskin in a way that has Magnus gasping and tightening his grip on Alec’s hair until it hurts.

Alec has never been so turned on just from the taste of someone before, but feeling Magnus inside his mouth is driving him insane.  He pushes his own hips down against the sheets as his throat relaxes enough to take more of Magnus in -- when the soft head of Magnus’s cock hits the back of his throat Alec almost gags, but doesn’t pull off, forces himself to relax and then swallows hard, letting his throat work around Magnus.

“ _Alec,”_ Magnus calls out, hitching one of his legs over Alec’s shoulder.  “Alec, Alexander, come up and here and fuck me.”

There’s no way in hell Alec can say no to a request like that.  He pulls off Magnus’s dick, jerking him off with his hand a few more times until Magnus is tugging at his shoulders, guiding him back up the bed.

“Lube?” Alec asks, down to single words again when their bodies are pressed back together and he can feel Magnus’s spit-slick erection pressing against his own.  “Condom?”

“Hang on, one second,” Magnus says, squirming out from underneath Alec and rolling over to reach into the bedside drawer.  He’s procured both items within seconds, and hands them over to Alec, who immediately flips the cap off the lube and squirts a generous amount onto his fingers.  “How do you want me?”

Magnus would probably manage to sound casual if he didn’t look quite as wrecked as he does, and if he wasn’t palming his own cock desperately.  Alec finds himself grinning through his haze of arousal.  
  
“Like this, on your back,” he says, pushing Magnus back down into the position they’d been in before.  He wants to be able to see Magnus’s face, this first time, to be able to kiss him and look in his beautiful eyes when he comes.  

Alec tries to prep Magnus quickly.  It feels good just to work a finger into Magnus’s ass -- Alec can’t even _imagine_ what it’s gonna be like when he has his cock inside.  “This okay?” he checks, and Magnus just nods, his head pushing up against the pillows and his hips pushing down against Alec’s hand, trying to pull more of him inside.

“Feels good,” Magnus gasps, sounding more undone than Alec has ever known he could be.  That seems like a good sign, so Alec pushes another finger inside, scissoring them and stretching.  He fumbles around for a minute until he finds Magnus’s prostate, and then all of a sudden it’s like a switch has been flipped; all the still tension evaporates for Magnus’s body and he melts against the sheets but starts squirming as well, rocking onto Alec’s hand, muttering half-finished encouragements.  Alec ignores his own desperately aching cock and keeps working his fingers against Magnus’s prostate, adding a third one to make sure he’s as stretched as he can get, rolling his balls gently with his other hand until Magnus looks like he can’t take it anymore.

“You good?” Alec checks, his mouth going dry when Magnus looks down at him and their eyes meet.  Magnus looks _debauched_ and gorgeous and he’s so hot and tight around Alec’s fingers and Alec feels like he has a fever, like he doesn’t even know what’s going on.

“I’m good, I’m _great,_ Alec, fuck me.”  Magnus squirms against him some more and pulls Alec up to kiss him deep, shoving his tongue into Alec’s mouth.

Alec does what he says.  He pulls his fingers out of Magnus, watching Magnus’s hole clench around the sudden loss as he fumbles with the condom.  Alec’s actually never been so glad to wear one, because he thinks if he was inside Magnus bare it’d be too much and he’d probably die.  He squirts more lube onto his cock, and then takes a moment to push a pillow under Magnus’s hips so they’re tilted at a better angle for both of them, and then braces himself over Magnus, one hand steadying his dick.

Oh _fuck,_ it’s about to happen.  Alec’s heart is thundering in his chest, he’s dizzy with his pleasure, and he leans down so he’s kissing Magnus once again as he finally, _finally_ pushes into him.

They both moan at the exact same time.  Alec has to pause when he’s barely worked the head of his cock inside Magnus’s ass, half to let Magnus adjust to the feeling but half for his own sake, because the intensity is scorching.  Magnus is so tight even after how much Alec had worked him open.

“Keep going,” Magnus urges after a moment, rocking his hips down to try and take more of Alec’s cock, so Alec has no choice.  He’s lost all ability to speak, to even think, just focuses on working himself inside Magnus in long slow thrusts until he finally bottoms out with a gasp. “Oh, _fuck,_ Alexander, you feel so good, you feel so so good filling me up oh fuck --”

Alec tries to go slow, he really does.  But Magnus is moaning and murmuring dirty things and rocking down against him and tugging frantically at Alec’s hair, and his ass is clinging to Alec’s cock with every move of their hips, and it’s all just too much.  He starts thrusting in earnest, trying to keep up with Magnus, his hips setting a relentless rhythm.  He can already tell it’s not gonna last long at all, but at least Magnus seems to be similarly affected, neither of them able to catch their breath as their motion grows desperately faster.

Alec leans down to kiss Magnus, though it’s really more like the two of them just panting against each other’s mouths, and he grabs at Magnus’s thigh with one hand to hitch it further up his waist.  Between that and the pillow tilting Magnus’s hips up they suddenly manage to find the right angle, and Magnus lets out a sharp shout against Alec’s mouth as Alec hits against his prostate.

“ _There_ ,” Magnus gasps out, like Alec couldn’t already tell.  “ _There there there.”_ Alec snaps his hips even faster, grinding against that sweet spot inside Magnus.  He feels out of his mind.  Magnus reaches down to jerk himself off between their bodies, and Alec shifts so his hands are braced either side of Magnus’s head, fingers twisting in the sheets so hard his knuckles turn white.  Like that he can thrust even deeper, harder like Magnus is begging him to, and Alec starts dropping short wet kisses over and over again onto Magnus’s mouth as his orgasm builds, some kind of desperate emotional affection building right alongside it.  Sex has never been like this for Alec.  He’s never been so vividly aware of his own emotions, he’s not even sure he’s _had_ these kind of emotions for anyone he’s ever fucked before, and it’s making everything feel crazed and tender and hot and terrifying and Alec never wants it to end.  
  
Fuck.  It’s gonna end.

“Magnus --” he manages to groan.  “I’m gonna --”

Alec buries his face in the crook of Magnus’s neck, sucking desperate breaths against his skin, and he just has to shove into Magnus one more time before all the tension in his body is suddenly exploding out of him and he’s coming, coming, coming so hard and gasping into Magnus’s shoulder and snapping his hips hard into Magnus’s body and it’s one of the best orgasms he’s ever had in his life.  When he stops coming and his brain starts working again, he realises Magnus is still jerking off between their bodies, his face screwed up in pleasure and needy gasps falling out of his lips.  Alec reaches down to touch him, and it's only a moment after he wraps his hand around the top of Magnus's that Magnus is coming too, with a shout that Alec swallows into a kiss.

Alec wishes he never had to pull out.  For a moment they both just lie there, trade a few soft wet kisses, grin at each other.  But eventually they do have to separate.  As soon as he rolls over, Alec feels totally boneless and like he could sleep for a week.  Magnus flops back on the bed looking much like Alec feels, a contented smile on his face, but after a moment he works up enough sense to pad to the bathroom, get rid of the condom and clean the come off his stomach.  When he’s done he comes back in, turns out the lights, and crawls naked under the sheets, dragging Alec with him.

“Mmm, Alexander,” Magnus says quietly, dropping a soft chaste kiss onto Alec’s lips before settling properly back into the bed.  Alec feels a rush of overwhelming emotion, and for a quick moment, he thinks he’s either going to burst into tears or do something dumb like  say ‘ _I love you_ ’ to a guy he’s only been dating for a month in the afterglow of their first time.  It passes a second later, but that doesn’t stop him from snuggling towards Magnus under the blankets, resting his head on Magnus’s shoulder.  
  
“You’re amazing,” he mumbles, not a love confession but much of the same sentiment behind it.  Magnus kind of just hums back.  He’s probably already mostly asleep.  Alec’s in a comfy bed on silk sheets, resting against Magnus’s warm, soft body, the gentle scent of sandalwood surrounding him; it’s only a few more moments before he’s falling into unconsciousness as well.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I SUCK AT WRITING PORN WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF IM SO ACE
> 
> i hope you guys liked it?? i'm sorry if there were some weird sections cus i wrote it all out of order MEH comment and lemme know what you thought??? ily all??? 
> 
> i'm going away on a lil hippie woman camping retreat thing (not its official name) so no chaps until sunday ^_^
> 
> [my tumblr!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	21. Chapter Twenty One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh i'm sorry for the super long wait!! for the last week all my energy has been going into finishing & posting my shadowhunters big bang fic, [on the line](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7487922?view_full_work=true). (it's a malec AU where alec is a hockey player and magnus is instagram famous/runs a vintage store/knows nothing about hockey but thinks alec's rlly hot, and you should totes go 'n check it out)

The next morning, Alec wakes up with his face smushed into Magnus’s hair.

He’s ridiculously comfortable and doesn’t actually want to move, but he’s also finding it difficult to breathe, so he has to force himself to shift away from Magnus’s body a bit.  As soon as his airways are clear again he takes a moment to just look at Magnus.  He’s dead to the world, all sprawled out in sleep with his mouth hanging open, his nose scrunched up a little, his fingers occasionally twitching.

He’s adorable.  Alec just lays there and stares at him for a few minutes before even trying to get out of bed.

When he rolls over, the glittery alarm clock on the nightstand informs him that it’s eight AM.  Alec technically has to go into work today to wrap up loose ends with the case, but considering how much extra work he and Lydia have done over the last week, nobody will care if they’re in late.  Usually _Alec_ would care about being late, but he finds that he actually doesn’t care this morning, not at all.  Maybe Magnus has fucked all the punctuality out of him.

Magnus still doesn’t stir when Alec climbs out of bed, just snuffles a little into the pillow and then immediately starfishes out into the empty space.  Alec grins down at him for a moment before pulling on his jeans from last night padding, barefoot and shirtless, out towards the kitchen.  Maybe the smell of food will rouse Magnus from slumber.

It’s a little awkward navigating his way around an unfamiliar kitchen, but searching the cupboard until he finds the frying pans is the least of his worries; Magnus’s kitchen actually seems a little dangerous.  Chemical solutions are mixed indiscriminately with food in the fridge, and Alec almost reaches for something he thinks is vinegar until he realises it’s in a test tube.  He finds himself grinning. Magnus doesn’t actually talk about science much, and he certainly doesn’t look how most people would expect a forensic analyst to look, but it’s hard not to be reminded that he’s actually one of the most renowned people in his field.  Alec feels absurdly proud for a fleeting moment as he shoves a spare bunsen burner out of the way.

Eventually, he manages to find some ingredients that are definitely safe for human consumption; flour, butter, eggs, a carton of almond milk.  He makes pancake batter, and by the time he’s pouring the first one into the heated pan, Magnus appears in the doorway.  He’s all sleep-ruffled and bleary, rubbing at his eyes and smudging the traces of eyeliner he hadn’t taken off properly the night before.

“Alexander Lightwood is shirtless and cooking me pancakes in my kitchen,” he observes.  Alec bites back a laugh.

“Who said they’re for you?” he asks, but when the first one’s done he slides it onto a plate and hands it Magnus’s way anyway.  Magnus kisses the warm skin of his shoulder, and then the crook of his neck, and Alec starts squirming happily just as Magnus moves away and folds himself into one of the kitchen chairs, his knees pulled up on the seat and tangled with his arms as he piles fruit on top of his pancake.

Alec finishes cooking the rest of the pancakes and divides them up and sits down at the table next to Magnus to eat.  Magnus chatters about a weird dream he'd had the night before where Alec was protecting him from zombies by barricading them inside Magnus’s favourite Starbucks.  It's nice to know that he's a protective figure even in Magnus’s over-imaginative subconscious. Looking over and just watching Magnus talk, gesture with his hands and nearly send a forkful of pancake flying across the room, Alec feels _warm_ inside, in a way that has nothing to do with standing over a stove or Magnus’s well-heated apartment.

He could get used to this.

\------

Eventually, they do both have to go into work.  They leave together, even though Alec has to stop at his apartment for a new shirt and they end up making out on his bed for half an hour, thanks to Magnus’s thorough appreciation of Alec’s abs.  But they make it to the precinct not long after that; kiss quickly at the front doors, which is probably unprofessional but neither of them can help it, and then Magnus disappears down to the basement while Alec heads to the bullpen upstairs.

Lydia isn't there yet, which makes Alec feel better about his own tardiness.  Considering she's as much of a workaholic as he is, they really must have earned their time off.  He’s missed the morning briefing so he goes to update Captain Aldertree on the case -- and knows how important this one is just from the fact that hardly _anyone_ gets called in to talk to him directly instead of passing messages through Hodge.  Then he fills out a stack more paperwork, feeling thoroughly thankful that he's not Jace, or someone else who hates that kind of thing, because the amount of evidence codes he has to list alone takes him half an hour.

By the time he's at a good stopping point, Lydia’s turned up, looking much more well-rested than the last time he saw her, and it's nearly time for lunch.  Even though he had a late breakfast of quite a lot of pancakes and isn't remotely hungry yet, Alec decides to take full advantage of his break.  

“I'm gonna go down to the basement for lunch,” he tells Jace and Lydia, who happen to be stood at the edge of his desk arguing about what kind of filing system they use in the evidence room.  “Call me if you need me?”

“Have fun,” says Lydia.

“To see your sister or your main squeeze?” Jace asks, grinning.

Alec rolls his eyes and doesn't respond.  He’s in such a good mood that he doesn't even mind Jace catcalling as he walks away.

\-----

“Big bro!” Izzy exclaims as soon as he walks through the morgue doors.  “Congrats on the case!  I'd come over and hug you, but, you know.”

She has her hands inside a corpse.

“It's fine,” he assures her, ruffling up her neatly pulled back hair as he passes and tries to crane his head to see back into the labs.  “Is Magnus down here?”

Izzy grins.

“I miss the days when you would come down here just to see _me_ .”  Her tone is joking so he doesn't bother reassuring her.  She pulls her hands out of the cadaver and starts reaching for the needle and thread to sew everything back up.  “Yes, he's back there.  But don't go yet, I'm not done with you?  Did you _really_ spend the night last night?  Spill!”

Alec groans.

“I _told_ him to stop gossiping about our relationship with you,” he complains, but finds he’s not actually annoyed; he likes that Magnus and Izzy are friends, at least.  “And my sex life is none of your business.”

Izzy grins.

“So you did have sex.”  She finishes her stitches and starts putting everything away; Alec levels her with a flat look as he watches the methodical way she goes about it all.  He goes to tell her to shut up, but before he can get a word out, the lab door is opening, and Magnus emerges into the space.

“I thought I heard your voice!” he says happily, heading over and dropping a kiss onto Alec’s cheek.  Alec blushes.  Izzy looks delighted.

“So does this mean you two are official now?” she asks, finally snapping off her latex gloves and pulling the sheet back up over the corpse in front of her.  Alec feels marginally more comfortable.  “Like _official_ official?”

Alec doesn’t actually realise what she’s talking about for a moment, and then he does and suddenly feels incredibly awkward; both hyper-aware of Magnus’s presence at his side and also unwilling to look at him.  They haven’t actually had _that_ conversation yet.  And Alec’s kind of been assuming they’re -- something, at least, more than casually dating, something as close to boyfriends as they can possibly be without either of them ever having said the word.  But it’s still only really been about a month, and he doesn’t want to push Magnus into any labels if he doesn’t feel so seriously about it as Alec does.  Magnus, after all, is used to a lot of casual dating; he’s told Alec as much on several occasions.  And as he learned last night, Magnus has had some bad experiences of serious relationships.

But Izzy is stood there, hands decisively on hips, looking at them with _expectation._ And Alec doesn’t know what to say.

“Well, we haven’t said it in so many words,” says Magnus offhandedly.  Alec suddenly feels like he can move again, and he wheels his head to look at Magnus, astounded by the nonchalance with which he can respond to something like that when everything between them seems both so solid and so incredibly new at the same time.  Magnus, clearly, is better at this kind of thing, or at least more used to it, because after that he just turns right to Alec, rests a hand on Alec’s neck, and says, “Would you like to be my boyfriend, Alexander?”

Alec’s brain goes a little blank.

“Yes, please.”

Izzy cackles delightedly, and Magnus grins and kisses him quickly, and Alec’s cheeks turn bright red.   _Please?_ Why did he say _please?_ He feels absolutely ridiculous, but there it is, and at least it’s over now.  And he has a boyfriend.

Fuck.  He has a boyfriend, and it’s Magnus Bane.  Probably the best boyfriend anyone could ever hope to get, on the scale of these things.  He has no idea what to do with that information, and it slightly doesn’t feel real, so Alec just slides it away into his brain and decides to enjoy it while it lasts.

“Well, brilliant, that’s settled then.”  Magnus helps Izzy push the cadaver back into the cold chamber, and then says, just as casually as he’d _asked Alec to be his boyfriend_ , “Right, who’s up for lunch?”

“Me!”  Izzy trills happily.  “All that dissecting really works up an appetite.”

She winks at Alec; she’s only saying it to gross him out, because clearly whatever random piece of genetic coding gave her an iron stomach is dormant in him.  He just rolls his eyes at her.  He hadn’t really been hungry when he’d come on break, but now he decides he could eat, if only because it seems like a million years since he last went to lunch with Izzy and Magnus -- back before all this case drama and what has only really been a week but has stretched on longer than any other week of Alec’s life.

“Let me guess, you want us to sit out in the sub-zero weather and get tacos?”  Even as he says it, Alec’s wishing he’d worn a second hoodie under his jacket.  

“You know me so well, big brother.”  Izzy shrugs out of her labcoat and into her warm jacket and scarf, then strides out of the room, apparently already eager for food.  Magnus goes to follow, but just for a second, Alec pulls him back by the arm so they have a moment alone together.  They were alone in Magnus’s apartment only a few hours ago but it’s already been too long.

“Hey,” he says, but then nothing else comes to mind, so he finishes, “Uh, I just wanted to say hi.”

Magnus looks at him for a long moment, and then breaks into a dazzling smile.  It knocks the air out of Alec somehow.  Magnus stretches up onto his toes and presses his lips hard against Alec’s.  He’s warm and sweet and though the kiss is too short for what Alec would really like to be doing right now, he lets himself revel in it for a moment; the press of Magnus up against him, the feel of his mouth.  The fact that _Magnus Bane_ is his boyfriend.  
  
“Stop making out in there, I’m hungry!” Izzy calls through the door, and it kind of ruins the moment.  But Magnus holds his hand as they walk out together.  It keeps the chill away better than any pair of gloves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed!! lemme know how you liked their morning after & ever-increasing sappiness ;)) ;))) ;)))))
> 
> [find me on tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know when a tv show has been on hiatus for 6 months longer than it said it would and there's still no sign of a new season but they spontaneously release a christmas special to make all the fans feel better? this is that
> 
> my entire author's note for this chapter can really be summed up by [this text post](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com/post/146749190881/)

On Christmas morning, Alec wakes up in his bed feeling warm and comfortable and quietly happy, with his phone vibrating on the bedside table.  He’s always an early riser, so it takes him a moment to realise that his phone isn’t buzzing with his alarm clock, but rather with a text.  Blearily blinking at the cracks of early-morning light coming in through his curtains for a moment, he rolls over in the dimness of the room and grabs his phone, which is cold from the winter night air, and brings the screen up to his face.

[ Dec.25 -- 7:14 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ IT’S CHRISTMAS! Are you awake yet, Alexander? _

Alec blinks again, but as soon as his brain processes the message, a smile is twitching at his lips.  He burrows further down under his duvet to keep warm and starts tapping out a reply.

[ Dec.25 -- 7:16 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ i am awake, but why are you?? u do know it’s before eleven right?? _

 

[ Dec.25 -- 7:16 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ Alexander, sleep schedules don’t count on Christmas morning! Anyway, Catarina stayed the night last night, so she woke me up at seven. _

Alec’s already heard that Magnus is spending his Christmas with Catarina and Ragnor, although Magnus’s other close friend, Raphael, has a big Catholic family he’s gone to spend the day with.  Personally, Alec thinks it all sounds a lot more fun than going back to his visit own parents for the day.

[ Dec.25 -- 7:17 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ there it is, i knew you’d never get up this time by yourself _

 

[ Dec.25 -- 7:18 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ You have no faith in me whatsoever! AND you haven’t wished me a Merry Christmas yet, tut tut!  I’m taking off boyfriend points as we speak. _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:18 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ merry christmas (dont take off bf points) _

 

[ Dec.25 -- 7:18 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ tehcnically you didn’t say it to me either, you just said IT’S CHRISTMAS _

 

[ Dec.25 -- 7:19 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ but i forgive you, i know ur very excited :P _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:19 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ I AM! I can’t help it, I just love Christmas, Alexander! All the decorations and sparkles and lights and celebrations and food and friends… it’s wonderful! _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:20 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ youre so cute _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:20 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ You’re too sweet, darling.  What time are you going to see your parents? _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:21 -- To: magnus bane ]

_i’ll probly leave in an hour or so.  it takes an hour to get there and we always spend the whole day_

[ Dec.25 -- 7:21 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ i was gonna say, actually _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:21 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ i know you’re probably busy with ragnr and catarina and i wont be back til the evening anyway and we said we weren’t gonna do gifts, but _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:21 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ i did kind of get u something, so if you’re not too busy, i thought we maybe could just meet up for a little bit after i get back tonight at 8 or something?? or tomorrow instead?? i know the holidays r always crazy busy and i didn't ask before now so it’s fine if u dont have time _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:22 -- From: magnus bane ]

_Alec, I would love to see you tonight.  I always have time for you, you know that, and it would certainly make my Christmas a lot merrier to see your pretty face. Besides, I MAY have got you just a tiny gift as well…_

[ Dec.25 -- 7:23 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ haha, i knew u were gonna break that rule too. but that’d be cool. i’ll text you when i’m back from my parents _

[ Dec.25 -- 7:24 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ Sounds perfect.  Have a lovely day, darling! Catarina is dragging me off to wake Ragnor (a two-person job, I assure you) and then make breakfast, but I’ll speak to you later <3 _

 

[ Dec.25 -- 7:25 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ dont burn your kitchen down on christmas _

 

[ Dec.25 -- 7:25 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ xxx _

Feeling even warmer than when he first woke up and more than ready to face his day, Alec sets his phone back on the bedside table and crawls out from under the covers, stretching his arms above his head and curling his toes when they land on the cold floor.  The thought of seeing Magnus later makes it feel like he can do anything.  Surviving yet another Christmas with his parents will be no problem.

\-----

When Alec arrives at his parents’ house at ten in the morning, there’s already chaos inside.  Jace and Izzy had gone the night before and slept over for Christmas eve, so Alec’s the last one to arrive, and as soon as he lets himself in the door he can hear clanging video game sounds from the living room and his dad’s stressed phone-voice from the office and his mom yelling in Spanish, some kind of burnt smell drifting out.  He assumes that’s where Izzy will be -- she usually is at the source of any burning food -- but doesn’t head in there just yet.  Instead he follows strands of sparkling decorations to the living room, dropping the stack of gifts he’s carrying by the huge, elaborately decorated tree, and grinning at Max, who’s slouched on the couch with a playstation controller.

“Hey, buddy,” Alec says.

Max doesn’t look up, but he says in one long stream, “Hey-Alec-I-would-totally-get-up-to-hug-you-but-I-can’t-pause-in-the-middle-of-this-fight-and-it’s-really-important-cus-I-haven’t-saved-for-ages-but-I’ll-talk-to-you-later-bye.”

Alec blinks, but manages to process most of the words and heads out of the room silently, veering towards the kitchen instead.  He supposes it’s a good sign that Max has some incredibly critical new video game, because it means he’s at least stopped fighting with their parents enough to be given his presents.

In the kitchen, sure enough, he finds his mom and Izzy, both wearing aprons and standing in front of a bowl of corn husks, a smoking pan abandoned in the sink behind them.

“Hey,” says Alec, leaning to kiss Izzy’s cheek and then his mom’s.  They both look happy to see him, though in very different ways.  “You started the tamales without me?”

Making tamales at Christmas is one of the only traditions Alec remembers lasting his entire life.  Their typical Christmas days have changed shape since he, Izzy and Jace all grew up and left home, and since a lot of his mom’s family moved away from New York, but there are a few things she’s clung on to.  Alec likes that those traditions mostly involve cooking.

“My mistake,” his mom says, seeming about as annoyed as she always is.  “I thought maybe your sister has learned a thing or two since the last time I tried this with her, but obviously not!”

“Hey, hey, calm down.  It’s okay.”  Alec looks from his mom to Izzy, who is doing a good job of trying to hide the fact that she’s upset; unfortunately for her, Alec can always read her big sad eyes and trembling lips.  “We’re all just good at different things, right?  Iz, I’m sure you were doing fine.”  He ignores the burnt pan in the sink and the smoke still filling the room; they all know Izzy can’t cook to save her life, but that’s not the point.  “Why don’t I make the masa, and Izzy can put it into the corn husks?”

Neither of them have said hello to him and he hasn’t even seen his dad or Jace yet, but within a few minutes, Alec finds himself shoved into an apron and stirring corn flour about in a bowl.  He doesn’t really mind.  He knows that his mom misses when she had a lot of her family around, and they would dedicate a whole day to making tamales, but since she moved to New York when Alec was a baby she hasn’t had that.  It’s only the six of them, so they don’t need to cook batches of hundreds like she always talks about.  His mom always makes the chile a couple of days beforehand too so that the tamales are ready in a couple of hours on Christmas day; for her this must all seem like a huge step down from how she did it in her childhood, but this version is how Alec remembers it his whole life, complete with the yelling and his dad, Jace and Max all disappearing as fast as they can.  

Izzy actually is good at filling the corn husks; she’s fine in the kitchen as long as she’s not put in charge of anything involving using the oven or adding flavouring.  Once they’ve made up enough and added the chile too, they put it all on to steam, and his dad finally appears through the door.

“Oh, hello, Alec.  I didn’t even hear you come in.”

“Hi, Dad,” Alec says, as he’s washing his hands off in the sink.  “Yeah, it was hard to hear anything when I came in.”

At least his mom’s yelling has subsided, but Max’s loud video game is still blaring in the other room, and there’s a radio somewhere playing loud Christmas music too.  The turkey’s in the oven and his mom’s either bought or already made a lot of the other food, but Alec busies himself for another hour roasting vegetables and helping his mom add spice to everything, and by the time they’ve finished that, Jace has appeared -- apparently having only just woken up -- and it’s almost time to eat.  

Alec hasn’t even sat down since he arrived.  Christmas at the Lightwood house is never a particularly chilled out affair; at least it’s only once a year.

Their Christmas lunch is huge, as always.  There’s a roast turkey stuffed with olives and chile, bacalao and pozole and the tamales they’d made earlier, salad and roasted vegetables and fancy bread.  Sitting at the dining room table among all the fancy decorations, eating way too much food, joking with Jace and making awkward small talk with his dad about cases and trying to buffer his mom from Izzy and listening to Max go on about the graphics in his new favourite video game, nothing feels very different from any other year.

After they’ve all eaten themselves far past the point of usefulness, they all open presents.  Alec isn’t very good at buying gifts for people, so he’s got everyone the same as always; some ties for his dad, fancy wine for his mom, gift vouchers for Izzy, a jacket for Jace, and a computer art program for Max.  It’s really only Max who Alec puts any effort into buying presents for anymore, and he feels kind of proud of himself when Max’s whole face lights up at the sight of the software.  He also feels pettily triumphant over his parents, who are still insisting they won’t pay for Max to go to art school and study animation.

He doesn’t really get any interesting presents from anyone either, apart from Izzy giving him a homemade voucher which apparently entitles him to one shopping trip with her – something he considers more of a gift to  _ her  _ than to him, considering how desperate she always is to get him a new wardrobe.  She’s added at the bottom, though,  _ in case you ever want to impress anyone special,  _ which is obviously referring to Magnus, and he has to admit that might be helpful.  He’s not sure he can wear his one purple shirt on many more dates without it becoming obvious that everything he owns is completely boring.

Jace gives him tickets to a hockey game, but then adds, “I had another present for you, but I left it back at my apartment, crap.  I’ll have to give it to you in a couple days.”

It’s a reasonable enough line, but he has such a wicked expression on his face that Alec doesn’t trust it for a second.

After that, they put on some terrible Christmas TV.  His mom has to go take a work call, and everyone else breaks out the wine, but Alec declines; he’s still planning on driving back tonight to see Magnus, which is far more appealing than having a couple glasses of alcohol and having to sleep up in his old twin bed, having flashbacks to high school as he listens to Jace snore across the room.

In the end, it’s actually Jace who saves him.  Just as the thought of watching another terrible Christmas special while his dad falls asleep and his mom stresses about everything and Max plays on his DS with headphones in becomes unbearable, Jace says --

“I need to get going soon.  I’m supposed to be going to this Christmas party at Clary’s, with her mom and stepdad and everyone, since it’s our first Christmas as a couple.”

“How are you getting back?” their dad asks, over the top of his glass of wine.  “Didn’t Isabelle drive you up?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna get the subway -- there’s less trains running today though, which is why I’ve gotta go now.”

After all the goodbyes and hugs and mini lectures and kisses and going back to hug both Izzy and Max again and saying a lot of  _ Merry Christmas _ and  _ Feliz Navidad _ s , it takes them half an hour to even get out the door, but eventually they make it to Alec’s car, laden down with leftovers and presents.  

As they’re piling everything into the backseat, Alec asks, “Did you really forget my other present?”   
  
Jace grins at him.  “Nope.  It’s in my bag.  Just didn’t want you to open it in front of mom and dad.”

Alec is instantly wary.  

“What is it?”

They climb into the car, Alec in the driver’s side, slamming the door behind him.  Jace settles into the passenger seat, and as he’s doing up his seat belt, says, “Condoms, bro.  Just a huge old bulk-box of condoms.”

For a moment, Alec considers making Jace walk home in the snow.

\-----

As soon as he’s dropped Jace off and arrived back at his own apartment, Alec dumps his presents next to the rather pathetic foot-high plastic tree Izzy forced him to put up, and texts Magnus.

[ Dec.25 -- 17:54 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ hey back earlier than i thought. text me whenever u want to meet up, i’ll be around xx _

He debates over adding the kisses for a minute, since he hardly ever texts like that, but then remembers that Magnus is literally his boyfriend  _ and _ it’s Christmas day, so he sends the message with them still attached.  He takes off his coat and is just unpacking leftover tamales in the kitchen when his phone buzzes with a response.

[ Dec.25 -- 17:58 -- From: magnus bane ]

__ I can be over in half an hour, if that works for you! Catarina is working the hospital evening shift and Ragnor is just a grouch, so I’m all yours tonight.  
__  
That’s the best news Alec’s had all day.

Then he thinks,  _ oh, crap, Magnus is coming over in half an hour.   _ Usually when Magnus is coming over Alec will have cooked something, but he knows they’ve both eaten huge Christmas dinners today, so neither of them are gonna want food.  Alec gets out some wine and vaguely tidies his apartment, turning off the big light and just putting on the lamps and some Christmas lights in his living room, which makes it look vaguely more festive.  His gift for Magnus is only the size of an envelope, so it doesn’t look very impressive as the only thing on the table.  He’s kind of worried about the gift.  They’d both said they wouldn’t give each other anything proper, since they’re both busy and Alec’s awful at buying gifts and they’ve only been officially together for a couple of weeks anyway -- although, wow, it certainly feels like longer.  He’d sort of managed to stick to the promise, since he hadn’t technically  _ bought  _ anything, but it does count as a gift, and he knows Magnus has apparently broken their rule too.

The doorbell rings at six thirty on the dot, and Alec buzzes Magnus up immediately.  A few minutes later Magnus appears at the door, looking adorable in his big coat and glittery scarf, some soft snow dusting his hair.  His nose is red with cold.

“Merry Christmas,” Alec says, leaning forward to kiss him.  Magnus grins into it and slings his arms around Alec’s neck, bumping him with a shopping bag as he does so, but Alec doesn’t mind.  He drags Magnus into the apartment and closes the door, and then just gets right back to kissing.  Magnus’s lips are cold from the walk, but they heat up under Alec’s touch; so does his face as Alec runs his fingertips across it, brushes the snow from Magnus’s hair, slowly unbundles him from his coat and scarf, letting them drop to the ground without much care.  

They manage to break apart before tumbling to the sofa, but it’s a close one.  Magnus is beaming, his hair all ruffled up.

“Merry Christmas, Alexander,” he says, dropping one last quick kiss to Alec’s lips before pulling away and putting down the bag he’s still holding, his eyes drifting around the room.  “It looks beautiful in here.  I like the lights.”

“Uh, thanks.”  Alec ruffles the back of his hair a bit, his mind not one hundred percent recovered from the kiss yet.  Every time he kisses Magnus it somehow just feels  _ more  _ intense.  “I didn’t really, uh, decorate much, since I was gonna spend it with my parents anyway --”

“Oh, how was that?” Magnus asks, cutting off Alec’s stuttering about decorations, which is probably for the best.  He takes a seat on the couch and drags Alec with him, tucking their arms together and looking genuinely interested.

“It was alright.  I mean -- it was great seeing Izzy and Jace and Max.  My dad’s usually okay.  My mom can be tough, but I do love her.  She’s extra stressed around Christmas, unfortunately.  It usually culminates in a lot of yelling.  Today was actually a pretty mild Christmas day compared to some we’ve had -- there were no screaming matches, and the only argument was at the beginning.”

The more he thinks about it, the more Alec thinks it actually was a very good Christmas, although he might possibly be influenced by how good it currently feels to have Magnus pressed against his side.  

He wants to kiss Magnus again, but if he does that, he won’t want to stop for the rest of the evening.  Instead he pours them both some wine and lets Magnus put music on the speakers -- some gentle Christmassy songs Alec has never heard but appreciates for the mere fact that Magnus obviously likes them.  Then, hesitantly, Alec tucks his bare feet up on the couch and turns to Magnus, holding out the red envelope he’d put Magnus’s gift in.

“This isn’t anything big,” he says preemptively, as Magnus’s face lights up, “And, and I know it’s kind of cheesy and cliche and, I, uh, I did warn you I’m terrible at gifts but I just wanted to do  _ something  _ for you and --”

While he stammers on, Magnus has already taken the envelope and torn it open, pulling out the Christmas card that’s inside.  It’s just a generic card, but when he opens it, a lot of other pieces of paper come tumbling out.  Alec watches nervously as Magnus picks them up and reads them.

“Cooking lessons!” he exclaims, sounding delighted, and the nervous pounding of Alec’s heart slows just a little as Magnus reads the others.  All the mini cards are handwritten, and just include all the things Alec could possibly think of that would be something cute to do together.  “Coffee date… Free pass to gossip about you with Isabelle, now  _ that  _ is a true gift.  Ooh, I’ve been wanting to see that microbiology documentary for  _ ages.   _ Alexander, these are absolutely adorable.”

He seems to genuinely mean it, his face lighting up as he reads the rest of the cards.  There’s twelve in there, ranging from simple things like a coffee date when Magnus is feeling down to the silly ones like gossiping with Izzy to the slightly proper things like Alec teaching him to cook, and even a couple of sexy ones which Alec had blushed as he wrote.  While Alec probably would have done every single one of them anyway, he likes the idea of Magnus being able to call in the activities whenever he wants them.  He knows if he’d tried to buy Magnus a necklace or a shirt or a book or something, he would have gotten it completely wrong; this was the safest way he could think of to show he wanted to give Magnus something to celebrate.

“I know it’s a bit dumb,” he says, shrugging and kissing Magnus’s shoulder for a second.  “I couldn’t think of anything else, really.  I’m glad you like them.”

Magnus drops the cards onto the coffee table in front of them and moves closer to Alec, dropping an arm around Alec’s neck and resting one leg on top of Alec’s crossed knees.  

“Alec, shush, they’re a great present.  You know I don’t really need anything; I got plenty of sparkly Christmas gifts and books from Catarina and Ragnor.  I love that you took the time to think something like this up.  I feel a little bad; I just bought you a shirt.”

“I’m sure it’s a great shirt,” Alec says quickly, grinning.  It probably is.  And at least he’ll have something to wear now that he knows Magnus will like, rather than always feeling too plain in his all-black.  He hasn’t even seen the shirt, but he doesn’t need to; he knows he’ll love it, just because Magnus picked it out.  
  
Magnus smiles back at him, and then after a moment, leans forwards to shuffle through the cards on the table again.

“Actually, put the wine away, Alexander.  I’ve decided I want to cash in  _ this  _ voucher right now.”

He turns back to Alec wielding one of the sex-related cards, a wicked smile on his face, and Alec blushes -- but who is he to deny Magnus, right?  After all, he was the one who said Magnus could redeem the activities any time he wanted.  Alec slides his hands under Magnus’s thighs and kisses him hard, no space in his mind for anything else.  There’ll be plenty of time to clean up tomorrow; right now he just wants Magnus in his bed.  Magnus drags him back to the bedroom, and collapses against the sheets with a laugh, and the whole world melts away.

A couple of hours later they lay under the duvet, wearing just their underwear and pressed so close that their heads share one pillow, their hair still a little damp from the shower they just took.  Magnus seems to be drifting off a bit, and even though Alec is suddenly exhausted too, his mind keeps whirring away as he holds tight to Magnus’s hand.

This, Alec thinks, has been a very good Christmas.  He hasn’t stressed about cases or work, there was no major drama with his family, and he gets to end the whole thing curled around his boyfriend.  The fact that he even  _ has  _ a boyfriend is still incredible to Alec; the fact that it’s Magnus, who is one of the most amazing people on the planet, is downright unbelievable.  Yet here he is, stroking his hand along Magnus Bane’s side to see if he can find any ticklish spots, laughing every time Magnus huffs and half-heartedly tries to swat him away.

Alec doesn’t know why Magnus is even with him, but he’s determined to hold on to every last moment they spend together, until Magnus finally comes to his senses.  If that doesn’t happy for fifty years, Alec thinks he’ll be happy.

On the bedside table, Alec’s clock ticks down to the last few minutes of the day.

“Look, Christmas is almost over.” Magnus’s voice is quiet, almost muffled by the silence of the room.  Outside there are still sirens blaring and people shouting and the general sounds of New York hitting in at them from all angles, but all of that seems to fade away when they’re curled up in this bed together -- like they’ve created some soundproof bubble where only the two of them can be heard.  They’re warm underneath the duvet, boiling at all the points where their bodies touch, and nothing in the world could get to them here.

Alec drops his head down onto the pillow, and lays a kiss on Magnus’s bare shoulder, then the back of his neck, then the very underneath of his ear.

“Merry Christmas, Magnus,” he says, just as quiet.  He’s exhausted, his eyelids drooping and body heavy against the mattress.  He thinks he mutters something else just as sleep claims him, but he doesn’t know if Magnus hears him.  It’s probably better if he doesn’t.  That’s the last thought Alec can remember having before he finally gives in and goes tumbling down into his dreams, still holding Magnus’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maia actually updated? it's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! i have had a crazy few months of university and life in general, but with the new season of shadowhunters coming up i am feeling inspired for this fic again, yay!
> 
> merry christmas, hanukkah, or general winter ceremonies/traditions to anyone who celebrates them! (my family doesn't celebrate religious or commercial christmas but we do have loads of food and games on the day so, happy food-and-board-games-with-family day to anyone else who happens to be in our wavelength!)
> 
> if you leave me a comment (festive theme optional) i will love you forever! you can also [find me on tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com) where i post more about when updates are coming and talk about this fic sometimes ^_^


	23. Chapter Twenty Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wanna thank everyone for the kind prods and gentle encouragements they have given me about updates for the last eight months. when good health, free time, and inspiration for a fandom all take consecutive holidays for a long period of time, WIPs inevitably fall to the wayside :/ 
> 
> if any of you are avid rereaders, you might have noticed a few edits i made to earlier chapters as i prepared to return to this fic recently. this was mostly just little things, but i did edit a couple of minor characters -- for some reason I'd tried to include a few book characters, even though I haven't read all the books and don't like them?? idk what i was thinking, but this is now a totally show-verse fic
> 
> i wouldn't be me if I COMPLETELY stuck to an update schedule, but my goal is now to update once a week, usually on friday-sunday, until anything you say is finally finished ❤️ i really hope you all enjoy these new instalments

Alec spends New Year's Eve at a huge party at Magnus’s apartment. He nurses a beer and ignores Jace and Clary making out in the corner and watches Izzy and Lydia thrash everyone at first beer pong, and then Dance Dance Revolution. Alec didn't even know Magnus _had_ Dance Dance Revolution. He didn't even know Magnus had a TV. They might be borrowed, or perhaps purchased especially for the occasion.

Alec kisses Magnus at midnight, and they end up sneaking away to trade blowjobs in the bathroom because they're a little tipsy and they can't wait until everyone's left.

It's a really good night.

And then, before Alec knows what's happening, they're halfway through January. Time tends to do that to him, especially when he’s working lots of cases at once; it all just slips by, and Alec’s never sure where it went. One morning, though, he wakes up, groggily grabs at his phone to set the alarm on snooze -- and his screen  happily informs him that it’s January 18th.

This is somehow startling information, but he’s still half-asleep enough to ignore it, so after a moment he just turns off the alarm anyway and snuggles back into the duvet with a sigh. It’s way too early, especially when he doesn’t have to work today, and he’d rather just stay in bed all day. Of course, Alec has never really been one for lie-ins, but today there’s one particularly compelling reason for him to want to avoid getting up. Dropping his phone carelessly into the bed, Alec rolls over -- and finds himself nose-to-nose with a sleeping Magnus Bane.

They’ve spent quite a lot of nights together in the last month, and Alec still isn’t over the fact that Magnus is so adorable when he sleeps. His face is mostly bare, with just a little smudged eyeliner where he’d been lazy taking off his makeup the night before, and he occasionally scrunches up his nose like he’s having very intense thoughts. For a minute, Alec just watches him, smiling fondly as one of Magnus’s hands scrunches sleepily at the pillow tucked under his head; it sends a ripple of motion through his strong bicep and the curve of his bare shoulder where the sheets have slipped down.

Alec swallows, reaching up to lightly to trail his fingers along Magnus’s bare skin. Although it’s his day off, Alec has to go to the shooting range with Jace to renew his firearms licence later; it’s an important task, but it’s kind of hard to remember why it matters when he has Magnus naked in his bed.

Magnus rolls over in his sleep, the long line of his body pressing completely up against Alec. Oh well, Alec thinks. It’s only Jace waiting for him. He can be a little late.

Alec shifts down under the blankets, and sets about giving Magnus a proper wake up.

\-----

Alec eventually manages to drag himself out of bed, thoroughly satisfied and the sort of limp-limbed happy that is probably gonna work against him when he has to go do important things with a gun later. Magnus, who also has the morning off today, makes no move to get out of the bed when Alec does; instead, he just stretches out on the rumpled sheets, shamelessly naked, and says, “Think of me when you fire your bullets.”

Alec almost trips over on his way to the shower.

Eventually, though, he makes his way out of the apartment and to the firing range with Jace. Part of him was hoping Jace would be even later than Alec, which isn’t a rare occurrence by any means, but unfortunately Jace is already there and looking smug about being early for once. Alec’s only really a tiny bit late and could easily lie about there being bad traffic, but Jace immediately grins in the vicinity of Alec’s neck, so Alec just knows Magnus must’ve left a big tell-tale hickey on him.

“Sorry if this appointment we’ve had for literally months interrupted you getting laid, brother,” Jace says, clapping a hand on Alec’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” Alec says, feeling a sudden sass-boost that might have something to do with the fact he had a mind blowing orgasm less than an hour before. “It didn’t interrupt.”

\-----

Magnus has never been one to shy away from pleasure, and it’s put him in plenty of other people’s beds over the years. That’s something he’s happy to admit, something that’s been awfully fun, but he still can’t help thinking about how long it’s been since he woke up in a bed that wasn’t his own and didn’t feel like he needed to leave right away. Or even like he wanted to. Waking up in Alec Lightwood’s bed is so different that it almost takes Magnus by surprise, no matter how many times he’s done it in the last month.

Even though Alec has to leave early, Magnus can stay in bed, because they’re somehow at the point where it’s not weird to be in each other’s apartments alone for a little while. They haven’t done the whole key-exchange thing -- it’s probably a little early for that -- but Alec’s door is on a latch that locks behind you whenever you leave anyway so he just reminds Magnus to set the alarm before he goes, leans over the bed to give him one more extremely distracting kiss, and then heads off. And Magnus lies there, in Alec Lightwood’s bed, feeling a little bit dizzy from how nice everything is.

Since he doesn’t have to be at the precinct until after lunch, Magnus takes his time getting up; he eventually rolls out of bed and has a shower, then drags on some clothes -- including one of Alec’s t-shirts, even though they’re horribly boring and unfashionable, because Magnus likes the idea of wearing something that belongs to his boyfriend. Even thinking the word boyfriend is still a novelty -- partly because even having one at all is so new, and even though their relationship is young they’re fast approaching the longest Magnus has been with anyone this decade, but also just because Alexander happens to be the most wonderful boyfriend ever. After thinking about that for a little while and then realising he’s acting like a total lovesick teenager who can't even get through a morning without stopping to dreamily stare into space and think about Alexander's lips, Magnus makes himself coffee in the kitchen, and eats some of Alec’s delicious leftovers out of the fridge, before finally heading out the door.

It’s a nice morning. It would have been better if Alec was there with him, but they probably would have ended up just staying in bed all day if that were the case, so Magnus is content with his wander through his boyfriend’s apartment.

It feels so _settled_. Which is ridiculous; they haven’t been together that long yet, and Magnus has dated people for more than two months before without even learning their last name. Alec is just so _different_. He makes Magnus feel different, feel things he hasn’t really let himself feel since he was so young, since Camille broke his heart -- or maybe not even then, because Camille had never been like Alec at all. Magnus had been in love with her, but he’d never felt _stable_. He’d never felt like he could look away and be one hundred percent certain she’d still be there when he turned around again. But with Alec, that’s exactly how he feels.

It’s a giddy sort of feeling. And it’s too soon, especially considering that both of them have such pathetic histories with relationships, to say _I love you_. But Magnus is increasingly sure that he’s starting to feel it.

Alec’s t-shirt smells like him, like warmth and a no-nonsense sort of plain laundry soap that he buys in bulk cus he can't tell the difference from the nice stuff, and Magnus likes it so much that he walks into work in a bit of a daze. On autopilot he stops at the cart outside to get coffees for him and Isabelle, and greets her with a dreamy sort of distracted noise when he walks in. She immediately rolls her eyes, looking far too much like her brother. Magnus likes Isabelle more than any other co-worker he’s ever had -- pathologists don’t tend to be the most cheery bunch -- but he’s beginning to realise why Alec is always moaning about her knowing too much about his relationships. She’s awfully intuitive, and sometimes Magnus just wants to be a swooning cliche in the honeymoon phase without having to acknowledge that to anyone.

“I know that’s Alec’s shirt,” she informs him with a smug look as she takes her coffee. “I’m the only one who ever shops for him.”

“And?” Magnus decides to own his sappiness, and takes a sip of his own latte before reaching to hang his jacket up on the carefully posed plastic skeleton they use as a coatrack. “We’re not twelve years old, I’m sure I’m allowed to wear my boyfriend’s clothes if I want.”

It’s not like Isabelle doesn’t know they’re officially boyfriends -- she was even there the first time they used the term -- but her face lights up in a delighted grin as soon as he says it anyway. Much like Alec once again, any annoyance Magnus had felt at her investment in their relationship quickly fades away. It’s only because she cares, like the sweetheart she is.

“So it’s really going well with you guys, right?” she checks, somehow managing to seem like she’s giving him her full attention even as she moves to start marking up the corpse that’s laying on her table. Magnus wrinkles his nose; though he loves forensics, the gorier side of pathology could never grab him like it does Izzy. “It _seems_ like it’s going really well, I mean, from a totally outsiderly sister’s point of view.”

“Yes.” Magnus can’t even bring himself to be embarrassed by how soft his voice sounds all of a sudden. “Yes, Isabelle, it’s going wonderfully.”

She looks pleased, which is what Magnus would expect, considering how lovely she is about them. But after a second, her expression slides into something else; brow furrowing, bottom lip popping out in contemplation as she shifts and fixes him with a long look that only gets steelier the longer it goes on. Magnus has seen Isabelle scare the crap out of a few people before, but _he's_ never felt all that intimidated by her until right this moment.

He resists the urge to flee to his office.

“Listen, Magnus, you know I love you,” she says, her tone almost carefully light. She turns back to the cadaver and sets about her work again, but doesn't stop talking. “You’re the best forensics buddy ever, and that's great. But I just have to say this -- in a lot of ways, Alec is more fragile than he comes across, okay? And I’m not gonna give you the whole protective siblings speech -- ‘cus I like you, and Alec can take care of himself, and I’m sure Jace already did anyway.” Jace had absolutely tried, although he’d been far too well intentioned for it to seem very threatening. Magnus had been amused. “But I’m just saying, I’m sure you know that if you hurt him, you’re gonna be the next body on this table.”

To punctuate her words, Isabelle sinks a scalpel deep into the chest of the cadaver in front of her.

Okay, all of a sudden Magnus is feeling less lovestruck, more queasy.

“I’m not going to hurt him,” he tries to assure her, busying himself with the lid of his coffee so he doesn’t have to look too closely at what she’s doing. “Alexander is a really big deal for me too. You don’t have to worry, Isabelle.”

Izzy looks up, and gives him a wide, toothy grin, the sort of smile that makes the whole room light up. It really is lucky Magnus is in so deep with his particular Lightwood sibling, he thinks, or it would probably be very easy for him to fall under Isabelle’s spell as well. He can see why so many boys and a share of girls all seem  to get in trouble with her. 

“I’m not worried,” she tells him, no longer scary at all. "I trust Alec, and I trust you, and I know my big brother better than anyone. This is the happiest he’s ever been in his entire life.”

–––––––––––

It almost feels like a perfect day, Magnus thinks a few hours later as he sprays down blood slides in the lab. Not one hundred percent flawless of course, but even though his shift is rather dull and he hasn't seen Alec in too many hours, there's some sort of deep happiness just _radiating_ through him today. Maybe he'd simply woken up on the right side of bed; of course, that might have been helped by the fact that it was Alec’s bed, and Alec was on his way to sucking Magnus off as he woke up, but still. Everything else, like Alec’s soft t-shirt and good cooking and Isabelle’s encouraging words and the fact that Alec has texted him five times from the shooting range and put little kisses after each message, has all come together to make this day a resounding success. And it's only going to get better, because he's meeting Alec back at the loft for dinner, and they're trying a new Indian takeout place Magnus has heard great things about, and later he'll get to see Alec all stretched out on silk sheets, which is never short of heavenly. Yes, Magnus thinks; this day is wonderful.

Or at least, he thinks that up until the end of his shift. Then Magnus packs up his things, puts on his coat, waves goodbye to Isabelle, and heads to the elevator. There's a woman already in there, turned around to apply her lipstick in the only slightly-reflective metal surface, and Magnus is so busy composing a flirty text to Alec that he doesn't pay her any mind at all as he steps in and presses the button for the ground floor, not even when he sees her start to turn around out of the corner of his eye --

“Hello, Magnus,” says Camille Belcourt, just as the elevator doors close. And Magnus’s blood runs cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okaaay i know I'm mean, but i couldn't resist a little bit of a cliffhanger! without spoiling anything, i do want to reiterate something i said a while ago: camille is a source of tension in her own right, but there will be NO miscommunication or jealousy between malec in this fic. those are tropes i really avoid ^_^
> 
> if you enjoyed the update and have any feedback, please leave a comment ❤️ 
> 
> you can also find me on [tumblr!](http://milominderbinder.tumblr.com)


	24. Chapter Twenty Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i keep losing track of the timeline of this fic and the only way i can recover it is to go back and look at the timestamps on the sappy texts they send to each other

For a moment, Magnus is just frozen. He can count the number of times he's seen Camille this  _ decade _ on one hand, and every one of them has been awful but bearable, if only because he knew in advance and had time to prepare himself -- as much as anyone can ever prepare themselves for an interaction with this woman. But this time.  Today, he hadn't even known she was in the city.  In the  _ country _ .  And he's so unprepared that it has him quaking in his stylish Chelsea boots. 

The last time he saw her was two years ago, now, and she hasn’t changed a bit.  He takes her in all at once, from the sharp-winged makeup to the ruthlessly tight black dress to the cruel curl at the corner of her lips.  She’s amused by managing to shock him; she always had liked that.  Every inch of her makes Magnus’s stomach turn over, his pulse quicken in dread of what’s about to happen.

The part he hates most, of course, is the part he’d never admit to anyone.  It’s that when he sees Camille out of the blue like this, his long-locked teenage heart spends exactly half an instinctive second being  _ happy.   _ He really does hate her, he wants nothing to do with her for the rest of his life if he can help it, and he’s felt like that for years.  But she was his first love, once.

Magnus doesn’t think you can ever get all the way over your first love.  Even if they ended up ruining you.

“Why are you here?” he asks, after several seconds of boiling silence.  His voice sounds all-too rattled, and he curses himself for still letting her cut under his skin.  “What do you want?”

Camille gives him one of her little smirks; the ones he used to find playful, but can now only ever view as cruel.

“You don’t have to take it so personally, darling.  I’m here on business, of course.  I hadn’t even heard you were working out of this precinct now.  Finally got that transfer?”  She flicks her eyes towards the ceiling, as if she’s exasperated.  “I told you to just give up that stupid loft and move somewhere better years ago; you wouldn't have had to wait so long for an end to your commute.”

Oddly, that statement makes Magnus a little less uncomfortable -- because he’s a little  _ more  _ annoyed, and it cancels out his upset at seeing her.  He likes his loft, damnit.  And so does Alec, which is infinitely more important than Camille’s opinion of it right now.

“Yes, well, I told you never to wear those ugly shoes, but here we both are.”  The elevator rattles as it begins to move; this thing is always painfully slow, but Magnus reaches out and presses the button a few more times, as if that will make it go faster.  And then, despite himself, he adds, “You’re working in New York again?  I thought we’d  _ finally  _ lost you to London -- and a very welcome loss it was.”

“Oh, Magnus,” she says, too slow and pleased to mean  _ anything  _ good.  “Where would be the fun in staying away?”  

The elevator  _ finally,  _ blessedly stops, doors slowly drawing open, and Magnus immediately flees through them.  His good day has crashed through the floor in a matter of minutes; it now feels even lower than rock bottom.  Why does she have to be back  _ now _ ?  Just when he’s starting to feel so completely happy, just when he’s starting up a relationship he thinks could actually go somewhere  _ good,  _ but while that relationship is still new enough that she might just have the power to ruin it if she wants.  Camille always has the power to ruin things like that.

As he heads towards the lobby as fast as he possibly can, Camille calls out in a saccharine voice, “Good seeing you, Magnus.”

Of course.  She still always has to have the last word.

\-----

When Alec gets home in the evening, his apartment is dark, and seems unwelcoming in its emptiness.  He flicks on a few lights, but can’t help admitting why he’s suddenly displeased by the living space that he’s found perfectly functional for years now -- it’s because Magnus isn’t there.  The times when Magnus invades his space are the only times Alec really  _ likes  _ it anymore.  And considering the apartment hasn’t changed at all, that can only be because Magnus being around just makes anything better, even if it’s fine already.

_ That’s an unhealthy attitude,  _ Alec tries to scold himself, as he sheds his jacket and boots at the door of his apartment and starts heading to the shower.  He’s a perfectly functional adult who is complete on his own; it’s not like he didn’t have a nice life before Magnus entered it.

Unfortunately, telling himself all that doesn’t actually make him stop missing his boyfriend.  Alec’s growing increasingly aware of his own sappiness, but he doesn’t see any point in putting up some sort of pretence about it -- he’s always been upfront about the way he feels.  And the way he feels is, increasingly, something which can only be described as  _ besotted.   _ So before he sheds the rest of his clothes and hops in the shower, he doesn’t resist getting out his phone and sending Magnus a quick text.

[ Jan.18 -- 17:58 -- To: magnus bane ]

_ hey :) how was the rest of your day? miss you _

He’s not expecting to get a response right away -- he’s not even sure if Magnus is off work yet -- so Alec abandons his phone and goes to shower.  But when he pads back out of the bathroom fifteen minutes later, scrubbing at his waterlogged hair with a towel and mentally debating if he should make curry or stir fry for dinner, Magnus’s name is blinking up from the phone screen, message already waiting.

[ Jan.18 -- 18:01 -- From: magnus bane ]

_ Come over? _

Well.  How can Alec resist a suggestion like  _ that?   _ He texts back saying he’ll be there in half an hour, abandons his dinner plans, and barely remembers to get all the way dressed before he’s heading out the door.

\-----

At Magnus’s building, someone happens to be leaving through the main doors just as Alec turns up, so he slides through and avoids having to ring the buzzer.  He goes up in the rickety elevator, smiling to himself and trying to stop eyeing the top of the elevator all the time, as if he can magically force it to rise faster.  He feels an odd mix of completely contented and overly excited; that’s how he usually feels when he’s about to see Magnus, if he's honest.  Magnus still makes him nervous, jittery like it’s their first date all over again, but with every passing day Magnus also makes Alec feels so much more  _ calm.   _ It’s a wonderful balance.  Considering that, Alec doesn’t think anyone could blame him for being so happy about going to see his boyfriend.

When the old elevator reaches the top floor and Alec pulls the screen open, he immediately heads to Magnus’s door and knocks, but there’s no response from inside.  Alec just shrugs to himself; he knows Magnus has a tendency to put on ridiculously loud music when he’s in the bath, or that he completely zones out when he’s working on a forensic problem at his desk and you’d have to blare a police siren right next to his ear to even get his attention, so he probably just hasn’t heard Alec’s knock.  Alec reaches to the top of the doorframe and takes the spare key he knows is up there, deciding to just let himself in.  He’s done it before, and he was  _ invited _ , after all.

He does make another mental note to talk to Magnus about security again.  For someone living in a terrible neighbourhood  _ and  _ dating a cop, his spare-key-placement-strategy is abysmal.

“Mag?” Alec calls, as he steps through the door.  “Magnus, you in here?”

The light is on in the main room of the loft, but there’s nobody there.  Alec’s brow furrows a little as he surveys the scene; no music is filtering out from other rooms, and he can see down the corridor that the doors to the study and the bathroom are both wide open, no lights on in either of them.   _ Maybe Magnus is just in his bedroom getting changed,  _ Alec tries to tell himself, but this still seems a little odd.  Wouldn’t Magnus have at least been listening out for the door, in that case?

He doesn’t exactly have a gut feeling something is wrong, but the cop in Alec still turns him paranoid for a second, and he instinctively lightens his footsteps, keeping his back to the wall as he slowly goes to check the other room for signs of life.  But he only gets halfway there when he stops in his tracks, all fear suddenly abated -- because he happens to glance out of the big glass doors, and spots the familiar figure of his boyfriend sat out on the balcony.

“Hey, you scared me!” Alec says lightly as he heads over there -- but as he gets close enough to actually step out of the doors, pulling them most of the way shut behind him to keep the cold January air out of the loft, he notices something’s off.  Magnus hasn’t perked up and has barely turned his head to acknowledge Alec’s arrival.  He’s sat on the floor at the edge of the balcony, safely bracketed by the railings but still slightly unnerving Alec by dangling his legs off the edge, and he just looks like he’s _folded in_ on himself.  Before now, Alec’s only seen Magnus with his head held high, his posture tall, all kinds of grace and confidence pouring from him even in his lower moments.  

Alec is a good detective, but he doesn’t even need to be to figure out that something is bothering his boyfriend right now.  He cautiously heads over there, unsure how to ask what it is, and folds himself down onto the concrete, letting his legs dangle over the edge and his arms brace against the thick railings that stop them from falling.  As soon as Alec's sat as well, Magnus shifts to curl up against Alec’s side.

“You okay?” Alec asks.  He doesn’t know how to phrase it better than that, so he just threads one of his hands into Magnus’s hair, resting it there comfortingly.  Magnus sighs against his neck.

“Oh, yes.  It’s just been a  _ long,  _ long day.”

Alec can’t help but quirk his lips at that.

“You only got out of bed about six hours ago.  It’s been that long of a day since then?”   
  
Magnus huffs, but there’s amusement in it, so Alec lets go of some of his worry; Magnus really does seem to be mostly okay, even if something has clearly thrown him off since this morning, when they last saw each other.

“ _ Yes,  _ it has, and my supportive boyfriend could try being a little more supportive if he felt like it.”  The words themselves are grumpy, but they come out in such a fond tone of voice that Alec just grins again.

“Okay, okay.  What would you like your supportive boyfriend to  _ do _ ?”

Magnus seems to consider this, sitting up a little bit straighter so he can lean into Alec’s hand where it’s still stroking at the back of his hair.  He’s so adorably like a cat sometimes, the way he curls into touches like that, and Alec can’t help but shift until they’re pressed even closer together, dragging Magnus’s legs on top of his.

“Just talk to me for a while,” Magnus eventually decides, reaching for Alec’s hand that’s not in his hair and holding it between both his own.  “Tell me about your day?  And then we can go and order some dinner, in a little bit.”

So, because Alec can’t refuse Magnus anything, he starts talking.  His day hadn’t been all that exciting, and he never thinks he’s very good with words or finding the best way to spin a tale -- not like Magnus is, because Magnus can make  _ anything  _ sound interesting.  But Magnus didn’t ask Alec to suddenly become a professional entertainer or anything, so Alec just relays all the small, happy little parts of his day, without trying to make them sound more interesting than they were.  He talks about Jace’s hijinks at the shooting range, and a particularly good bagel he got on his way back, and a silly picture Izzy had sent him, and how when he stopped off at the precinct to pick up some paperwork before going home, he found Lydia asleep in the break room cuddling an empty slushie cup.  Magnus is looking far happier, by that point; he’s picked his head off Alec’s shoulder and is smiling along with the little anecdotes.  So Alec decides to keep going, adding on the encounter he’d had with the annoying lawyer prosecuting their serial killer case, the woman who keeps turning up at the station demanding copies of arrest reports and things, the woman who --

All of a sudden, Alec realises that Magnus’s hand has dropped away from his.

“What did you say her name was?” Magnus asks, interrupting Alec’s story, and Alec’s brow furrows.  Magnus seems spontaneously on-edge again, little smile gone, and Alec doesn’t have a clue why or what he’s just done.  

“The lawyer?  Uh, Belcourt -- her first name’s Cammy, or something?  Camilla?”  Alec is still awful with names, he’s well aware of that.  What he’s  _ not  _ well aware of is why Magnus suddenly looks exhausted with the world at large.

“ _ Camille _ .”  Oh, yes, Alec remembers; that was it.  “You’ve met her before?”

“Only since she started prosecuting this case of ours, a few weeks back.  Why?”  Alec pauses, but doesn’t know how to ask the question subtly.  “You know her?”

There is a long beat of silence.  Magnus picks up Alec’s hand again and starts playing with his fingers, but it feels more like it’s for distraction than for comfort.

“I _did_.  Unfortunately.”

Alec waits, wondering if there’s more, but Magnus doesn’t seem to want to say anything else.  Alec is -- well,  _ curious  _ is putting in mildly, but he’s also aware that there are plenty of reasons two people working in New York law-enforcement-related fields might have met before, and more importantly, that there are some parts of his past Magnus doesn’t want to talk about yet.  Alec doesn’t mind that.  So he lets it drop, because Magnus wants to drop it.  The subject will come up again, he’s sure -- at some time when they’re both ready to address it.

“Come on,” says Alec, tugging at Magnus’s hand until he finally acquiesces to climb up off the cold balcony floor.  “I’m starving, let’s get some food.  I’ll even let you pick where we order from, to win back my supportive boyfriend points.”

Magnus smiles and rolls his eyes.  Stood up, he seems taller again, his posture straighter and head higher, and Alec breathes a silent sigh of relief.  He’s not sure what’s gone on today, or what this annoying lawyer has to do with it, but all he cares about is that it seems like Magnus is okay.  Or at least that he will be, after a little bit of prompting, and an evening that will hopefully turn out to be nice and chilled.

“You know I was only joking, Alexander.  You already have all the supportive boyfriend points in the world.”  Magnus leads the way inside, dragging the doors properly shut behind them before shedding his coat, and then adds with a grin, “I am, however, still going to choose dinner.  You have a great many wonderful talents, but good taste in pizza places is  _ not  _ one of them.”

Alec makes an offended noise at the back of his throat as they collapse onto the couch together.

“ _ Oh,  _ okay, just because you’re a pizza  _ snob _ \--”

“Liking food which you can hold without seeing the grease physically  _ drip  _ from it does not make me a snob, Alexande--”

“You eat  _ thin crust  _ in  _ New York,  _ and don’t even get me started on the pineapple --”

Alec ends up eating thin-crust pineapple pizza that night.  They laugh their way through a ridiculous gay rom-com on Netflix, and then they're curled into Magnus’s soft bed before eleven, kissing each other goodnight until their lips go numb and Alec drifts off to sleep.  By that point, he’s almost forgotten Magnus was ever upset about something at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a lil bit of sad magnus in this one, but alec will make it all better with pizza and cuddles! that's my personal recipe for fixing any problem in life tbh
> 
> if you liked the chap, please leave a comment and let me know, it'll totally make my day!
> 
> you can also find me on [tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com)~


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys can probably predict every word i say by now: sorry for the wait blah blah blah, uni is so stressful i'm so busy blah blah blah. i'm tryna combine this fic w nanowrimo this month tho, so hopefully i'll be getting more words out on the regular
> 
> this is a longer chap and has one of the few scenes i've planned since the very beginning of this fic, so i'm super excited for you all to read it !!

_ Meeting the family.   _ It’s one of those cliche phrases to do with relationships, the ones that people call ‘milestones’ and put more stock in than Alec thinks is strictly necessary.  The sort of milestone Alec has never paid much thought to before.  He’s dated, sure, but even his attempts at relationships that lasted more than a couple of months had never been serious enough for Alec to have to meet anyone’s parents.

One guy, a cute martial arts instructor Alec had dated when he was twenty three, had invited Alec to lunch with his mother after they’d been together for three months.

To avoid dealing with it, Alec had just broken up with him.

Now, though, things are very different.  For one, he’s dating Magnus, who Alec can’t currently imagine wanting to break up with for  _ any  _ reason.  And secondly, Magnus doesn’t strictly  _ have  _ a family, since his parents are dead -- what he does have, though, is a particularly close-knit group of strangely disparate friends who he claims are as close as family in their own right.  Ragnor, the reclusive grumpy novelist who has known Magnus long enough that he somehow ended up his biggest support system; Catarina, the college roommate he still turns to with all his problems; Raphael, the younger foster brother he still likes to bother long after they both left the system.  The three of them come up in conversations about Magnus’s past so often that Alec feels like he knows them already. 

But the fact is, he  _ doesn’t  _ know them already.  And no matter how many times Magnus claims this evening is going to just be a casual little dinner, no stress needed, Alec can’t help but feel slightly like he’s preparing for a shotgun talk from Magnus’s father.

“Are you sure I look okay?” Alec checks one last time, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt as they stand outside the restaurant door.  Magnus rolls his eyes, but looks remarkably fond as he leans close to smooth one hand across the fabric on Alec’s chest.

“Darling, trust me, none of my friends are going to care what you’re wearing.  They don’t have my eye for fashion.”  He pauses, then tilts his head.  “Well, Raphael likes his expensive suits, but he’s a brat about everything anyway so you needn’t listen to him.”

Great, as if  _ that  _ makes Alec feel better.  This is far from a fancy restaurant or formal occasion, but he suddenly feels like he should have dressed up a bit more than just wearing his usual boring shirt-and-leather-jacket combo.

Magnus, though, doesn’t seem to mind, and hopefully in the end that’s all that matters.  Sucking in one last nervous breath and nodding to try and make himself feel better, Alec says, “Okay, right, sure.  This is gonna be fine.  Shall we go in?”

Magnus doesn’t seem convinced by Alec’s show of confidence, but smiles at him anyway.

“Of course, darling.  Just, one last little tip before you go in to meet my friends?  Try not to look _quite_ so  much like you think you’re going to get eaten alive.”

With that, he pats Alec’s chest one last time, and heads in through the restaurant door.  

\-----

Alec’s first impression of Magnus’s friends is:  _ terrifying.   _ He tries to look confident as he takes off his jacket and settles down in a chair next to Magnus, but with the other three already there and staring him down in three separate but equally intimidating ways, it’s hard.  It’s also unfortunate that Alec has never been very great with people to begin with.

“So, this is the detective?” Raphael asks Magnus, his voice drawling and one of his eyebrows raised as he moves his eyes away from Alec.  He doesn’t sound impressed, but one of the few things Alec knows about Raphael is that he’s a lawyer, and lawyers and police officers do have a bit of a reputation for not getting on in their circles; hopefully, it won’t colour Raphael’s judgement.

“That’s me,” Alec agrees, even though Raphael doesn’t seem to have been talking to him.  “It’s, uh, nice to meet you guys.”

Raphael just raises an eyebrow, and Ragnor is all too quiet and looks very hard to please, but Catarina at least shoots him a smile.

“You too, Alec.  I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“ _ Thank you!”  _ Magnus exclaims, as he narrows his eyes at his other two friends.  “See,  _ Catarina  _ knows how to make a nice impression and make the poor, nervous boyfriend of her oldest friend in the world feel welcome.  It wouldn’t kill  _ you two _ to at least smile.”

“It might,” Ragnor says flatly.

Catarina waves a dismissive hand their direction, ignoring all the boys, before leaning closer to Alec.  “You’re all Magnus  _ ever  _ talks about now.   _ Alec is so gorgeous, Alec makes me feel so fluttery, Alec bought me flowers today and I’m going to swoon and die.   _ It would get boring if it weren’t so damn cute.  I’ve been telling him for weeks to bring you around; it’s not every day we get to meet someone who’s worked their way into  _ Magnus’s  _ padlocked safe of emotions.”

Alec blinks at her, and then turns his head to glance at Magnus next to him.  Magnus is now glaring at Catarina as well, and there’s a little flush of colour at the tops of his cheeks.  The fact that  _ Magnus  _ is embarrassed, when Alec’s the one who should technically be feeling under scrutiny here, actually makes all of Alec’s worries lessen slightly.  His lips twitch, and before he knows it, he’s grinning.

“Well, it’s good to know I’m getting such a reputation,” Alec says, and Magnus pinches his knee under the table, but then leaves his hand resting on Alec’s leg.

“Don’t go getting a big head, darling.  I have to talk about you, or else they’ll bore me with  _ their  _ drab little lives and I’ll never get a word in edgeways again.  It’s an act of pre-emptive defence, really.”

“Mmhmm,” Alec agrees, laughter in his voice.  “Okay, sure.  It can’t just be that you actually  _ like _ me or anything.”

A month, even a few weeks ago, this kind of prevailing confidence in the fact that Magnus really does like him would have seemed insane to Alec.  But lately, he can’t help it -- it’s a wonderful feeling, and one he wants to bask in as much as possible, knowing that  _ Magnus Bane  _ really sees him as someone special.  Someone worth talking about to his closest friends; someone worth bringing to a dinner like this.  And the more he thinks about that, the less nervous Alec feels about talking to Magnus’s friends, even if Raphael still looks murderous and Ragnor hasn't said two words. 

Magnus, for his part, doesn’t retort anything.  He just shoots Alec a ridiculously fond look; the look he seems to save just for moments like this, and which always has Alec melting on the spot.

“Ugh,” says Raphael, as he picks up his menu.  “Head over heels for a  _ detective.  _ I always knew you had horrible taste, but this is a new low, Magnus.”

Alec picks up his menu as well, mostly as an excuse to hide behind it, but he oddly doesn’t really feel offended.  There’s an edge to Raphael’s drawling words that almost sounds like humour, and it takes Alec a few moments, and the indulgent smile on Magnus's lips, to realise Raphael  _ is  _ joking.  Well, his sense of humour might take some getting used to, but it’s encouraging to know he does have one.

“Oh, please,” Ragnor suddenly pipes up.  His dry British accent stands out among the others at the table, but he still seems utterly at home there as he slouches back in his chair and rolls his eyes.  “Magnus can’t hit any new lows anymore.  Not since the girl you brought to that wedding, what was it, three years ago?  The one with the Hello Kitty tattoos.  You’d only known her a week, but she cried and smashed an entire row of champagne flutes when she found out your star sign.”

Catarina bursts into laughter, either at the memory or at the way Alec’s eyebrows fly up when he hears it.  Magnus looks sheepish.

“Yes, well, I can hardly be blamed for that -- she seemed normal when I met her in that club bathroom.”

Quietly, Alec enquires, “What  _ is  _ your star sign?”  Magnus had mentioned not liking his birthday once, and then never brought up the actual date again.  

Magnus says, “Sagittarius, darling.”

Ragnor says, “Oh, don’t tell me  _ you  _ believe in that crap too.”

“Of course not,” Alec replies, while making a mental note to google Sagittarius horoscopes later, in his own apartment under the cover of darkness.  It's his duty as a responsible boyfriend.

“Anyway, perhaps we could wait until at least the  _ second  _ time you meet my boyfriend to start bringing up the embarrassing exes, hmm?” Magnus suggests, but it seems like it might be a lost cause with the way Ragnor is lighting up as he prepares to launch into another story.

Luckily, just then, a waitress appears, barring any particularly scarring anecdotes from being shared.  Trying to be comforting, Alec pats Magnus’s knee under the table, but he’s secretly looking forward to any embarrassing stories Ragnor might share.

“Hi there, guys!  Are you ready to order?” 

Magnus just says, “Wine.  We’re going to need a  _ lot  _ of bottles of wine.”

\-----

Alec ends up surprising himself with just how much he enjoys the evening.  Ragnor and Raphael both take some getting used to, and even Catarina is very blunt in her cheerfulness, but the way they settle into interacting with Magnus -- years of familiarity so clear in the way they tease and bicker -- warms his heart.  Alec has seen Magnus around co-workers, and around Alec’s own friends, and he’s always so charming and funny and snarky and confident.  But there’s still something so different about seeing him around his  _ own  _ friends, for once.  Magnus usually loves talking about everything  _ except  _ his past, but with these old friends, snippets of it seem to slip out without any of them realising.

After a while, Alec manages to slip into the background of the conversation -- even as the shiny new boyfriend who they gathered here to meet, his novelty seems to wear off when they realise he’s relatively unoffensive, quiet, and just very smitten with Magnus.  He wouldn’t have it any other way, because then he gets to listen to everything they’re saying about his boyfriend, and just enjoy it.  

Everything is so disparate, but comes together to form a fascinating picture.   Raphael makes snarky comments about a teenage Magnus who used to sneak out all night and sass back to their foster parents when he got caught climbing back in the window at five AM wearing his girlfriend’s make-up and smelling like wine.  Catarina talks about college-age Magnus, who figured out how to beat the online test system, and snuck a cat into their dorm for three months before he was caught.  Ragnor mostly tells stories about all the embarrassing exes he’s met, and all the times Magnus has turned up drunk to sleep on his couch.

Alec listens to all of it, and finds himself falling for every version of Magnus Bane that has ever existed.

At the end of the night, they split the bill and all shrug back into their coats, Alec holding the door out for Catarina and getting a pleased grin in response.  It’s not late yet, but Catarina has an early shift the next day, and Ragnor is getting a train back out of the city, and Raphael simply claims no interest in doing anything else that night -- “three hours at a time is as much as I can take of Magnus before I come down with a migraine” -- so they part ways outside the restaurant, Magnus and Alec ready to go and catch the end of a show Simon’s band is playing that night.

“It was nice to meet all of you,” Alec says politely before they leave, as he tugs Magnus into his side.  If asked, he’d say it’s because the January evening is cold and they need to huddle for warmth, but he’s pretty sure nobody would believe him.

“You, too,” says Catarina warmly, and reaches out to give him a light hug before stepping back and huddling tighter into her coat, hands pulling the edges across her body.  “Keep this one out of trouble for us, won’t you?”

Laughing, Alec says, “Yeah, I’ll try, but I can’t make any promises.  I’ll at least be there to bail him out.”

That seems to be the right answer, because Catarina gives him an amused smile, and pats him on the arm one last time.  In the brief moments they’ve been talking, Ragnor has turned to Magnus instead, and Alec catches the tail end of the exchange.

“I am glad you’ve managed to find someone who’s not  _ completely  _ reprehensible for once, old friend.”  Ragnor’s voice is haughty, but there’s an element of sincerity that is oddly touching.  Alec pretends not to have heard it, because he knows the statement wasn’t meant for him, but he feels the way Magnus softens at his side, and he’s pleased for that.

Finally, they manage to say the rest of their goodbyes, and Magnus hugs all his friends -- one happy, one pretending to struggle, one completely against their will -- before everyone heads off.  As Raphael and Catarina head the same direction down the street, Alec catches a last snippet of Raphael’s voice floating on the wind.

“--still can’t believe it’s a  _ cop.” _

\-----

“You have to take everything they say with a grain of salt.  Or a tablespoon, more like,” Magnus tells Alec cheerily as they make their way down the street to the bar Simon is performing at, holding each other’s gloved hands.  “But you were wonderful -- trust me, that’s the most Ragnor has ever liked anybody I’ve introduced him to! And --”

Alec, smiling to himself under the cover of his scarf as he listens to Magnus chatter on so happily, wouldn’t mind this conversation never ending.  Unfortunately, that’s when his phone chooses to let out a sharp  _ BLEEP  _ and start buzzing in his pocket, alerting him to a badly-timed call.

“Sorry,” he mumbles to Magnus, letting their hands separate so he can root around in his jacket until he scoops out his phone.  Because of his job, Alec never feels like he can ignore a call, no matter how much he wishes he could be one hundred percent off the clock and just enjoying time with his boyfriend.

When he looks at his phone, though, it’s not Lydia or some urgent work call.  The name on the blaring screen reads  _ DAD.   _ Alec hesitates, finger over the  _ answer  _ button, and glances sidelong at Magnus for one quick moment.  Alec’s dad doesn’t usually call him in the evenings, or really much at all, so it might be something important -- another fight between Max and their mother, maybe, or some other family drama.  But even though he knows he probably should, Alec doesn’t want to answer it.

He’s with Magnus, is the thing.  And while Magnus knows Alec has a difficult relationship with his parents, and isn’t even officially  _ out  _ to them yet, he’s still not completely caught up in the Lightwood family chaos and disapproval yet.  He doesn’t quite know the depths to which Alec’s relationship with his parents is strained.  And Alec would like to keep it that way.

If it’s really an emergency, Alec’s dad will just call back, anyway.  So he declines the call, quickly shoving his phone back into his pocket and ignoring Magnus’s raised eyebrow.

“Not important,” he says simply, twining one arm back around Magnus’s waist.  “Come on, we’re almost at the bar -- oh, look, I can see Jace falling out of the door from here.”

\-----

When Magnus and Alec arrive, everyone else is already  _ thoroughly  _ drunk.  While Simon’s band isn’t completely awful, they’re just one act in a long line-up of amateur bands at this particular event, and Jace informs Alec loudly when he arrives that getting trashed has been the only way to survive the night.  

Personally, Alec thinks the  _ musicians  _ getting drunk might be half the problem, but he keeps his sober state of mind out of it, and just gets Jace some water.

Simon’s band only play a short set, just enough for Magnus and Alec to have one drink -- Magnus has a cocktail but Alec sticks to sparkling water, because although he kind of thinks some alcohol might be a good shout to help him recover from the nerves of meeting the most important people in Magnus’s life tonight, he can  _ also  _ quite clearly see all his own friends are completely trashed already.  Someone’s gonna have to get them home after this, and Alec already has a lifetime of playing Jace’s designated driver under his belt; might as well keep it going.   


ure enough, when Simon hammers off the last loud note on his keyboard and finishes the set, Jace immediately turns to Alec and drapes his arms sloppily over his shoulders, grinning.  Behind them, Clary is slumped over the table, trying to have a slurred conversation with a coaster instead of her phone.  Isabelle’s the only one who still looks remotely sober, and the only one Alec trusts to get herself home, but the other two are definitely in need of intervention.

“My brother!” Jace tells him, as if suddenly surprised to see him there, despite the fact they’ve been sat together for half an hour.  “My  _ brotherrr.   _ Alec, you’re the -- you’re --” Jace trails off, hiccups, and then leans around Alec and adds, “and  _ Magnus.   _ Dude, you’re -- you’re  _ sparklin’.” _

Magnus is, indeed, sparkling.  He is as glittery as always, and actually looks gorgeous tonight, especially in the coloured lights of this little bar.  He looks particularly good when he smiles, which he does, rather wryly, when Jace starts talking to him.

“Well, aren’t you an observant one.  Do you remember how much you’ve had to drink, Jacey?”

Jace looks too drunk to know if he should be annoyed at the nickname or not, and just furrows his brow.  “Uh… Vodka?”

“How much vodka?” Magnus asks patiently, as he goes to scoop Clary up from the other side of the table.  They must have been there for a really long time before Magnus and Alec turned up, and the previous acts must have been  _ really  _ bad, if the pile of shot glasses on the table is anything to go by.

Frowning some more, Jace lets Alec start dragging him towards the exit of the bar, and says, “A hundred?”

That’s definitely not a measurement of vodka, so Alec doesn’t know what Jace thinks he’s being asked.  Deciding not to overthink it, because Jace in this state is always a mess to deal with and the less you engage with him the better, Alec manages to get his brother outside, and prop him against the outside wall of the bar.  Magnus is only a moment behind, with a slightly more lucid Clary clinging to his arm and chattering away about something Alec doesn’t understand.

Alec didn’t bring his car tonight, but when all of a sudden Clary sticks out her fist and a key is dangling off one of her little fingers, Alec gets the hint.  He sighs, yanks the key away from her, and then glances at Magnus.

All night -- looking at Magnus in his sinfully tight shirt and sparkling make-up, hearing cute past-Magnus stories from his oldest friends, watching the way Magnus lights up with happiness around them -- all Alec has really been able to think about is going home with Magnus at the end of it.  He wants to spend tonight in Magnus’s bed.  He wants to suck the shimmering lipgloss off Magnus’s lips, and the fingers he’d used to steal bites of Alec’s dinner earlier.  He wants to make Magnus tell him more about the ways he rebelled in high school, and how incredibly smart he must be to have hacked his college tests.  He wants to cuddle under Magnus’s silky red bedsheets, so close they can feel each other’s heartbeats, and press tiny kisses along his shoulders until Magnus gives him those big, soulful eyes in a way that might look a tiny bit like  _ I’m falling for you just as much as you’re falling for me.   _ Most of all, Alec would really, truly like Magnus to fuck him tonight.

And instead, he has to drive home his stupid drunk brother and his stupid drunk brother’s drunk girlfriend, and hope they don’t puke on him in the car. 

It’s not the ending he wanted for this night, but it’s hardly like Alec can leave these drunk messes to fend for themselves, so he just sighs and shoves Clary into Jace against the wall -- they can hold each other upright for a minute -- and says a quick goodbye to Isabelle and Simon, who have just emerged from the bar but are only  _ tipsy _ and live in the same neighborhood, so can help each other get home.  

“Hey, make sure you speak to Dad soon?” Izzy says, just as she’s leaving, and Alec can only blink and hope Magnus isn’t listening too closely to this exchange.  “Whenever you ignore him, he ends up texting  _ me  _ about Mom, and I’m nowhere near as good at dealing with their bullshit as you are _.”   _

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” he tells her quickly, dropping one last kiss on her cheek and shooing her away with Simon.

Then, he turns to Magnus.  Magnus  _ clearly  _ heard all that, but he’s trying to look uninterested, which Alec appreciates.  Whatever drama is going on with the Lightwood parents probably isn’t worth wasting mental energy on, anyway.

“So, I think I need to get these guys back to Jace’s,” Alec says, only partly trying to change the subject, tone apologetic as he jingles Clary’s car keys and steps closer.  Magnus seems to understand, although he affects a disappointed expression as he reaches out to settle one hand into the crook of Alec’s arm.  “Do you want a ride, too?  I know your place is only a couple blocks away, but…”

Magnus shakes his head, a strand of artfully swooshed hair falling in his eyes for a moment, and it’s ridiculously cute.

“I’m fine, darling.  You make sure these little drunkards get home safe, okay?”

Alec nods, and then pauses.  Magnus’s hand is still on his arm, and although nobody should manage to look good illuminated only by city streetlights and the neon sign advertising the name of the bar above them, Magnus somehow  _ does.   _ He looks magical, and Alec can’t even bring himself to care that Clary and Jace are stood two feet away from them, watching everything that happens.

Alec steps even closer and wraps his arms around Magnus’s waist in one swoop, ducking down until he can capture Magnus in a bright kiss.  As always, Alec’s whole body soars with electricity the moment their lips touch, and the way Magnus back just a little to align their bodies is intoxicating.  When he shifts against Alec, it sends little sparks of excitement all the way to the very tips of Alec’s fingers and toes.  Alec draws the kiss out, crushing their mouths together hard and stroking at the tiny slither of exposed skin where Magnus’s jacket has ridden up his hips, wanting nothing more than to whisk him away and keep doing this all night.

In the long moments of the kiss, Alec forgets everything -- the time, the cold, where they are -- so it’s a bitter moment when they’re suddenly interrupted by the sound of a muffled wolf-whistle from behind them.  It’s Jace, of course, Alec realises as he pulls back suddenly and forces himself to step away from Magnus.  Jace is so drunk that the whistle sounded more like a two-tone squeak, and without looking, Alec sticks his middle finger up in that direction.

“ _ Well _ ,” says Magnus.  Alec is inordinately pleased by the fact he sounds rather breathless.  “Now we’ve cleared  _ that  _ up, I was going to suggest you come over to my loft after you’ve dropped these two back, darling.”

Alec doesn’t even hesitate.

“Yes,” he says, and darts back in to drop one more hard kiss onto Magnus’s lips.  “Yeah, that, uh -- it won’t take me long to drive them back.  A half hour, tops.  I’ll just grab some clothes from my place and come straight by, after that?”

Magnus beams at him.  “Perfect, darling.  I’ll see you soon.”

Trying not to think about how much he just wants to be in Magnus’s bed already, Alec sets about loading Clary and Jace into her car, and eventually gives just one last goodbye kiss before leaving Magnus and setting about driving the others home.  Quite frankly, he’s so turned on that he has to resist breaking half a dozen traffic laws just to get them to Jace’s apartment faster.

Well, half because he’s turned on, and half because he just wants to get rid of his brother -- who, sprawled drunkenly in the back seat, starts singing at the top of his lungs the moment the car speeds away from the curb.

“ _ Alec and Maagnus, sitting in a tree, F - U - C - K - I - N - G ---  _ hey, Alec, how’dyou spell  _ anally?” _

Alec takes the nearest piece of crap off Clary’s dashboard, and throws it right at Jace’s head.

\--- 

As Magnus walks the block back to his apartment, already missing the warmth of Alec’s arms and impatient for when he’ll come over later, he thinks back on the night.  It had been fun, seeing his oldest friends interact with Alec for a while, but it’s not that which keeps churning around in his mind.  Instead, he can’t help focusing on the two minutes while Alec had gone to the bathroom.

“ _ So, in much worse news, Camille is back _ ,” he’d told his friends, the second Alec disappeared around the corner.  He’d explained seeing her, and he’d explained the bad feeling he had in the pit of his stomach, and he’d explained how little Alec knew about all of it.  And Catarina, Ragnor, and Raphael, three people who couldn’t usually agree on something as simple as the sky being blue, had all told him the same thing:  _ you need to tell Alec what happened. _

Now, looking up at the dark sky over Brooklyn as his approaches his apartment, Magnus just sighs.  Dredging up the past is never fun, but unfortunately, he thinks they might have a point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a comment and let me know! i was super nervous about writing catarina, ragnor and raphael -- especially the first two, since they've had such small roles in the show so far -- so i'd love to hear if you think they were characterised okay!
> 
> you can also find me on [tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com) ❤️


	26. Chapter Twenty Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> catch me like a cryptid, popping out of the woods when u least expect it with a new chapter of this fic. what's her update schedule? nobody knows! why is her motivation so bad? nobody knows!! boy, she sure does love malec, tho
> 
> HAPPY TWENTYGAYTEEN BY THE WAY! let's start the year off with our primo gays, malec!!
> 
> (forreal, this chapter has some heavier stuff in it than my usual fluff palaces tho. mentions of past unhealthy relationships, minor mentions of drug dealing, long overdue conversations, that kind of thing. maybe 'camille' can just be a warning in itself)

First thing on a Monday morning is never the best time to be assigned a new case, but luckily, Alec and Lydia are only passed something rather routine that week.  It's a small robbery at an electronics store only a couple of blocks away from the precinct, and there's already an obvious suspect.  Lydia takes the lead with her usual level of confidence, but after a while of being partners, Alec doesn’t find it so abrasive anymore; it’s actually quite useful for him, to stand there and observe everything in as much detail as he can, while she deals with most of the talking.

The case only gets interesting when they’re following up on a witness later that afternoon.  Even then, it’s not really the  _ case  _ that’s interesting -- it seems completely open and shut, a disgruntled ex-employee who had the access codes and a previous conviction for shoplifting -- but rather the area the case brings them to.  Alec has been through Little Tokyo before, sure, but never spent much time there, and has certainly never paid much attention to any of the market stalls.  But today, as he’s trailing after Lydia on their way to the witnesses house, his attention is suddenly caught.

Magnus, of course, has been to  _ actual  _ Tokyo, because he’s far wider travelled than Alec, and had told a little throwaway story about omamori charms on one of their very first dates.  Alec doesn’t remember the details of the story anymore, but he remembers googling the charms when he got home afterwards -- he’d pretended to know what they were in the moment, trying to make Magnus think he was more worldly than he possibly really was, but hadn’t really been sure.  Wikipedia had quickly informed him that they were little amulets for luck or protection, and he hadn’t thought much more of it.

Until today.  He doesn’t know what it is, but a stall full of little red brocade bags catches his eye, and Alec finds himself calling over to Lydia, “Go on, I’ll catch up in a second.”  

She gives him a weird look, but heads on without him anyway, intently checking her notepad to make sure they have the right address.  It’s another one of those times he’s glad to not be partnered with Jace anymore.  Jace would have given him hell for being so sappy.

Five minutes later, Alec follows after Lydia, with a new little acquisition tucked away in his pocket.  Later, Alec will have trouble explaining why he even bought it; he doesn’t believe in luck or fate or anything like that, and regardless, this omamori wasn’t even sold at a temple or anything, so it’s purely a commercial product.  But Alec just has a feeling that Magnus will like it. 

These days, that’s a good enough reason to do anything, he thinks.

\-----

In some sort of modern miracle, Alec and Lydia get the case tied up within the day.  The ex-employee  _ really  _ didn’t know how to cover his tracks, and they find all the stolen stuff in his apartment, which leads to him confessing in a garbled rush of emotion the second Lydia puts her hand on the holster of her gun.  She was only adjusting it on her hip; the guy clearly isn’t very tough.

Alec’s plenty grateful for that, though, because it means he can get out of work on time for once.

“Any good plans for the night?” Lydia asks, as they grab their stuff out of the break room.  “Wait, let me guess.  It starts with the words ‘Magnus and I’.”

Alec rolls his eyes at her, but can’t deny that she’s right.  He’d woken up in Magnus’s bed that morning, all tangled up in the plush duvets that Magnus uses to beat out the January temperatures, to find Magnus still fast asleep on his chest.  Alec had to leave earlier than him for a gym session before work, so he’d kissed Magnus awake on his way out the door, and Magnus had mumbled a command for Alec to come back that evening for dinner.  Alec assumes that means  _ he  _ will be making dinner, but he doesn’t mind.  He loves it, actually.  He loves how easy it is for their relationship to settle into a routine, and he loves how he doesn’t have to worry, anymore, that Magnus might not really want him there.  The way they both feel is increasingly, ridiculously obvious.

“I’m a predictable guy, what can I say,” he shrugs to Lydia as he’s pulling on his coat.  “How about you?  Hitting the town?”

Lydia lets out a rather ungraceful snort as she snaps on a large pair of fluffy earmuffs.  She feels the cold more than anyone Alec’s ever known -- even more than Magnus, he reckons -- and is wearing about five layers of wool outerwear and a puffy coat about twice the size of her body, just to brave the Brooklyn streets.  It’s very amusing.

“If by ‘the town’ you mean a glass of white wine and my Netflix queue, then sure.  Come on, Alec, don’t you know me at all by now?”

Amused, Alec holds the door open for her, and they both head towards the elevator together.

“Just thought you might not be as predictable as me,” he says idly, and waves goodbye to a pouting Jace, who is still stranded at his desk working an apparently uncrackable case with Raj.  They look like they’re gonna be there a while.  Alec has never been more grateful for inexperienced robbers.

When they get outside, Lydia immediately races off in the opposite direction, clearly eager to spend as little time in the cold as possible, so Alec digs his phone out of his pocket to text Magnus on his trip back to the loft.  He’s got those gloves that are supposed to work on touchscreens, but it still takes him a minute longer to unlock the screen, and he’s almost at the subway by the time he gets his messages open.  There’s one new text from Magnus, sent about half an hour before.  

[ Jan.28 -- 17:58 -- From: magnus bane <3 ]  
_ Hey, handsome. Did you take the spare key this morning? Also I’ve got no ingredients in so you might want to pick stuff up for whatever you’re cooking me ;) _

Alec rolls his eyes, but fondly, as he crafts a response that once again tells Magnus off for his terrible key-storing habits -- on top of the doorframe is the most obvious spot in the universe and no matter how nice Magnus’s building is this is  _ New York  _ \-- but also assures him he’ll be back for dinner in under twenty minutes.  Magnus’s reply comes only a few moments later.

[ Jan.28 -- 18:32 -- From: magnus bane <3 ]  
_ Never mind, I found it! See, my key hiding strategies are wonderful and you are never allowed to tell me off for them again.  Can’t wait to get a bite of something tasty tonight… and I’m sure the food will be good too ;) _

Alec simply texts back,  _ that line was awful  _ and puts his phone back in his pocket, but he’s beaming despite himself.  His smile gets even wider when his fingers bump up against the little omamori charm in his jacket; he’d almost forgotten about buying it.

One quick stop to buy the ingredients for lasagna, and he’ll be back at Magnus’s.  Alec can’t wait.  He wants a proper kiss, since they’ve only had one sleepy one that day, but he also  _ really _ wants to see whether Magnus likes his gift.

\-----

The spare key isn’t on top of the doorframe when Alec gets there, so maybe Magnus really  _ has  _ taken his comments about security risks to heart.  He’s pleased about that, but it means Alec has to knock, which is something he hasn’t done for ages when coming to Magnus’s; maybe, Alec thinks to himself as he waits for the door to open, it’s time to exchange keys. Of course, they hardly ever sleep over at Alec’s these days, so his would be almost completely ceremonial, but oh well.  It would still make life a lot easier.

But maybe a two month old relationship is still a bit fresh for that.  He files the thought away for the minute as the door finally swings open in front of him, and Magnus is revealed.  He looks even more dressed up than usual, somehow, even though they’ve got nowhere to go, and is stunning and sparkling and smiling at Alec.  Alec’s breath is punched out of him for a second.

_ How the hell is this my life,  _ he thinks, just a normal New York cop who owns five t-shirts and has never encountered a single crumb of glamour in his own life; how does he have a boyfriend this stunning?  Then Magnus hooks a hand in the front of Alec’s jacket and pulls him in for a kiss, and Alec doesn’t do much thinking, for a while after that.

Eventually, though, he gets dragged into the apartment, listening to Magnus’s rather cheerful chatter about his day.  There’s been something off about Magnus, lately, like something’s worrying him -- Alec has been able to tell, but it doesn’t mean all the moments with him aren’t lovely.  A tiny, more superstitious part of Alec is maybe hoping the charm he bought today will help ease Magnus’s mind somehow.  That reminds him, as he’s dumping his bag full of groceries on the kitchen counter, and he decides he wants to give Magnus the gift before he even starts on dinner.

Magnus has gone into the other room to make them both a drink, and Alec follows him in there, creeping up behind until he can plonk a kiss onto the side of Magnus’s neck, startling him.

“I have something for you,” Alec says against the skin there, pressing another light kiss, and Magnus immediately wheels around, one eyebrow going up.

“A present?  But there’s no occasion.”

“No, I know, I just -- saw it, and thought of you.  It’s only small, but I wanted to get it for you anyway.  Open your hands.”

Magnus looks somewhere between excited and shell shocked, but he puts out his palms, and then watches as Alec carefully deposits the omamori into them.

“It’s a charm for protection.  I remembered you talking about them once and I just thought, well, you ought to have one.  I know it’s just a gesture, it’s not real magic or anything, but I guess you could see it like -- me, saying I’ll protect you, too.  Or just have it as a little reminder that you’re safe, y’know?  Maybe it will even bring you real luck, or maybe it’ll just look pretty, but, uh, I just hope you don’t think it’s dumb or --”

Magnus turns his eyes up to Alec, looking absolutely  _ adoring,  _ and Alec’s heart stutters.  

“I love it,” says Magnus, soft voiced, and reaches up for a kiss, soft and slow and completely full of affection.  Alec tugs lightly on Magnus’s hair, but Magnus just keeps cradling the omamori reverently in his hands.

When they pull apart a moment later, Magnus tucks it carefully into the pocket of his jacket, and Alec says, “I’m glad.”  He’s expecting to go off and make dinner and leave things there --

But then, all of a sudden, Magnus is looking at him again.  Only this time, he doesn’t look happy.  He looks almost close to tears.

Alec’s throat goes numb.

“Sit down, darling.  There’s something I need to tell you -- come clean about, I suppose,” Magnus says, his voice sounding a little too charged and thick in his throat.  The energy of the room seems to have shifted in a single moment.  A wave of dread goes through Alec as he drops onto the sofa -- only a few minutes before he’d been thinking about how lucky he was to have Magnus.  Is it all about to go away?  But Magnus must be able to see the stricken expression on his face because he quickly adds, “No, no, it’s nothing you’ve done, or -- it’s nothing I’ve done to you, either.  It’s just.  Things from my past seem to be cropping up, again, and I think it’s only fair you know what they are.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything before you’re ready,” Alec tells him earnestly, because he truly believes that.  He wants to know everything about Magnus, sure, but not if it causes Magnus pain; Alec could wait forever to hear things Magnus doesn’t want to tell him.  He wouldn’t mind if Magnus’s whole life was a blank mystery right up until the day they met.

But Magnus just finishes pouring their drinks and shakes his head, fringe swooping into his eyes.  He takes a seat on the sofa, a few careful inches away from Alec, and plays with the glass in his hand.

“No, I -- I do want to tell you.  You might be one of the only people I’ve ever wanted to tell these things.”  There’s a long pause, and Alec doesn’t know what to do with himself.  He would reach for Magnus, because Alec is far better at physical comfort than he is verbal, but Magnus had sat apart from him for a reason.  He might not want to be touched.  Alec keeps his uncomfortable hands to himself, and just waits with nervous breath until Magnus finally begins; “I suppose the crux of it is that my ex-girlfriend is back in town.  But she’s a lot more than that.  She’s a really, truly horrible person, and I know that she’s going to try and make my life difficult while she’s here -- and that might mean trying to make  _ your  _ life difficult, too.  That’s why you deserve to know this, Alexander.”  Magnus takes a deep breath, and finishes, “You’ve already met her, actually.  She’s a defence attorney.  Camille Belcourt.”

Alec’s mind immediately flashes back to the pretty, terrifying lawyer with the hungry-shark smile who is defending the serial killer he and Lydia had caught the month before.   _ Oh,  _ he thinks.  In a way, he can picture her with Magnus; they must have made a beautiful couple, both so elegant and glamorous.  In another way, he can’t picture Magnus ever being with anyone like her at  _ all. _

“She’s your ex?” Alec checks, feeling a little dumbstruck.  He wonders if he should be feeling jealous, but he’s not; he’s mostly just really worried for Magnus.  “Why do you think she’s gonna try and do something to you?  Has she said something?  Have you seen her since she came back to town?”

“Only briefly, and accidentally,” Magnus tells him, voice uncharacteristically quiet.  “She hinted at some less than kind plans, but I suppose I mostly know based on history.  She got me into some very bad things, and didn’t take it well when our relationship ended, even though she had always been the problem in it.  She… Camille manages to bring out the worst in me, Alexander, but she’s also been there for me through some very bad times, so it’s always been complicated .”

“I can understand that,” Alec assures him, quiet and serious.  In a way, Alec feels like that about his parents -- the way they scare him, but are still  _ family.   _ Still, he knows it’s different, and because Magnus seems to want to talk about it now and because Alec truly wants to know, he asks, “What happened with you guys?”

Magnus takes one long, deep breath, and looks straight ahead at the opposite wall rather than looking at Alec.  Then he begins.

“You already know that after my parents died, I spent a lot of my teenage years in foster care.  It was -- it was a rough time.  My first foster home was a group home, and all the kids there had problems.  It was an _angry_ time in my life.  I was lucky enough to meet a few friends, like Raphael, but he was younger than me and more of a little brother.  One of the only people my own age I really bonded with, though, was Camille.  I had  nobody _ ,  _ Alec, no family or anybody to call my own at that point, and when we started dating, I thought I had finally found a reason to live.  And she told me she loved me, and she gave me attention -- and I would do whatever she wanted.  I was already hurting from all the people I had lost, anyway, and I suppose I wanted to go a little off the rails myself.  But Camille was even worse.  She was getting involved with some gangbangers, selling drugs, any sort of crime she deemed  _ smart  _ that would get her some money.  For a few months, she got me into it all as well.  And then we got kicked out of our first high school for selling on school grounds, and I got moved to a different foster home, and we were in a lot of trouble, but things still didn’t end with us.”

Magnus takes another breath, and Alec takes a moment to think back.  Had it been the very first time Magnus asked him out, when Magnus had told him about getting expelled from school?  All because Alec claimed they didn’t know each other well enough to date?  It seemed like a lifetime ago.  Magnus still wasn’t looking at him, but Alec couldn’t tear his eyes away as Magnus started to speak again.

“I managed to stay away from her more criminal side after that, but I knew she was still getting involved in it all.  What was worse at the time, though, was that she started to cheat on me.  Of course, I was distraught, but she would make all sorts of excuses.  She’d say that now we lived apart, I wasn’t around enough, and I couldn’t get mad at her for a few little slip ups.  We must have broken up and got back together a hundred times over those few years, and then we both aged out of foster care and got a college apartment together, and then I went to do a semester abroad.  I was terrified she would find somebody else for _good_ while I was gone -- so before I left, I proposed.  And she said yes.”

Alec’s breath catches for a moment.  A long-term relationship is one thing, but  _ engagement?   _

“Did -- did you guys get married?” he questions, starting to feel a hint of that jealousy which had been lacking before.  But Magnus immediately shakes his head.

“No, no, not in the end.  I thought proposing would finally mean she would stop seeing other people, but of course it didn’t. I broke it off for good when I came home from my semester in Europe to find her in our bed with another man.”  Magnus lets out a dry little chuckle, but it doesn’t sound like he finds it funny at all.  “She didn’t take kindly to being dumped.  She did some rather awful things to me for a whole year, until she moved away for a new job, but surprisingly none of it hurt me as much as the things she did while we were together.  She’s a bad person for all sorts of reasons, but for me, the cheating always felt worst.  She convinced me it was right, and to be expected, and natural. I suppose for some people it can be, people less tied down by preconceived ideas of love or sex or both, but for me --” Magnus pauses, taking a tiny sip of his drink, and Alec has never seen him look this  _ uncertain _ before. “I’m a little foolish, I know. I always seem to fall too hard and too fast. But I've simply always been a  _ one soul at a time _ kind of guy.  And when Camille ignored that, or convinced me I shouldn’t be that way, it was -- it was damaging, Alexander.  She is one of the only people who has ever made me feel I shouldn’t be myself, and she told me it was for  _ love. _ ”

Alec's heart aches in pulses, like it's being rolled through thunder. He wants to reach for Magnus, but he's not sure how; he doesn't want to make things worse, or somehow drag the associations of Magnus’s past into the feelings between  _ them _ . So he just sits there, feeling wretched, and wanting more than anything for Magnus to look happy again.

Magnus, though, just stares down at the drink in front of him, eyes miles away, and the silence stretches on longer than silence in the midst of a story like this should. As much as Alec doesn't know what to say, he begins to feel like he  _ needs _ to say something, anything -- but just as he's begun scouting his uselessly reticent brain for the right words, Magnus suddenly looks up, and meets Alec’s eyes for the first time in minutes.

“Nobody had ever loved me before.  I would have done anything for her, just because of that.  But in the end she only broke my heart like everyone else.”

_ I won’t break your heart,  _ Alec wants to say, but he can’t get the words out, so Magnus just carries on instead.

“I suppose that's why it meant so much when I met you Alexander.” Alec’s heart halts in its frantic beats, suddenly taken aback. “Because right from the start, no matter how new our relationship was, you always felt  _ safe _ . Stable. I felt like I could trust myself with you, and not have the ground ripped out from under my feet.”

That’s the moment when Alec can't resist anymore, and he reaches out, desperate to touch any part of Magnus, hold him, make all of this okay.

“You can,” he says, when Magnus comes so easily and lets himself be bracketed into Alec’s side.  “You can trust me with that.  And I promise you, Magnus, I’m not going to let her mess with you again.  Or  _ anyone.   _ You’re safe with me.”

And though he can't see Magnus’s face anymore, Alec can feel the tension seeping out of him as he curls against Alec’s shoulder.

Alec might not be good with words, but he's been told he's good with hugs, and he's beginning to think he's pretty good with  _ Magnus _ too. It's a very specific skillset, but he wouldn't trade it for all the eloquence in the world.

Magnus reaches out to twine their fingers together, seemingly content to say nothing else for now.  Gently, slowly, Alec kisses the top of his head, and just breathes against him. 

Yeah, he thinks. They're going to be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a heavy one, right? but i enjoyed it so much ngl. pls leave a comment and let me know what you thought of magnus finally talking about his past!
> 
> u can see me being a fandom mess at [milominderbindered](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com) as always
> 
> HAPPY NEW YEEEARRR!


	27. Chapter Twenty Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't @ me i know how long this has been hgfdsasdfg
> 
> in my defence, i literally just finished my last semester of uni !! boutta be a creative writing graduate !! but that just means all my writing time has been taken up with uni all the time sooooooo anyway it's a minor miracle i'm getting this chapter out at all tbh
> 
> also in a fit of procrastination one day i made a map of the morgue/lab complete with annotations so if ur interested [here u go](https://i.imgur.com/JwRXVJM.png)

In the days after he tells Alec about Camille, Magnus seems a little lighter.  Not completely reassured, of course -- she’s still nearby, and the threat of her doing something still seems to be hovering over Magnus’s head -- but in general, he’s breathing easier.  His smile seems to reach his eyes a little more.

Alec can’t figure out if Magnus thought Alec was somehow gonna  _ judge  _ him for what had happened in the past.  Maybe even break up with him. But to Alec, that idea is so ridiculous he can’t even get his head around it; all he wants to do is support Magnus, and make him happy.  Plus, as much as Magnus is worrying, Alec can’t help but wonder what Camille would even be able to  _ do  _ that would be that bad _.   _ She’s a lawyer, now, not a petty teenage criminal with a grudge.  Even if she has a tendency to stray away from the law -- which certainly isn’t precluded by practicing it, Alec knows -- she’s at least going to be more closely watched, and find it a lot harder to get away with anything awful.

Besides, Magnus has moved on by now.  Can’t Camille have, too?

Either way, Alec decides not to stress about it until something actually happens _ ,  _ because he’ll drive himself to madness otherwise.  So instead he just sets about enjoying his time with Magnus.

He’s spending so much time enjoying their relationship, actually, that January ticks over into February, and without Alec even noticing it, Valentine’s Day is suddenly looming on the horizon.

Here’s the thing: Alec never used to think he was a romantic.  In every past relationship he’s had, he’s actually been kind of sickened by the idea of doing things like flowers and chocolates and picnics and candlelight, let alone the most famously overplayed  _ romance day  _ of the year.  Twice in his life, he’d actually broken up with perfectly nice guys at the end of January, just to pre-emptively avoid the awkwardness of having to either arrange or deliberately not-arrange Valentine’s Day dates, and all the fallout thereof.

With Magnus, though.  Well. Alec’s beginning to find he can actually picture pretty much  _ anything  _ with Magnus.

He spends about two weeks building up the confidence to ask about it, but all his plans are scuppered the week before when they’re lying all post-coital and tangled up in Magnus’s gold sheets, Chairman Meow chewing on Alec’s toes at the bottom of the bed, and Magnus cheerfully asks, “Do you want to do something for Valentine’s Day?  It’s on Thursday.”

Alec freezes.  Is it really that easy, to just ask?  He’s spent several full nights googling dozens of articles on what’s the appropriate level of Valentine’s gifts and activities to get for a boyfriend you’ve been dating three months, and finding out all the coolest places in New York, and compiling a detailed spreadsheet of possible dates by location, price, time, and level of ‘serious relationship’ points, and articles about how to ask someone on a date for a specific day of the year without being cheesy.  And now Magnus has just  _ asked. _

So, like the complete idiot he is, Alec says, “Yeah.  I was actually planning something -- a surprise.”

He immediately wants to kick himself.  That was the perfect opportunity to say  _ yes, Magnus, I’d love to, what do you want to do?  _ and take all the planning pressure off himself.  Magnus probably knows exactly what is appropriate for a Valentine’s Day date and already has hundreds of ideas locked and loaded, and would love to plan something, because that’s the kind of person he is.

But he’s also the kind of person whose face has absolutely lit up as soon as Alec mentioned planning something.  Because Magnus loves surprises, and also, still, genuinely has trouble believing people care enough about him to want to _do things_ for him.

“Really?” he asks happily, curling into Alec’s shoulder and dropping a little kiss there.  So Alec can’t take it back.

“Yeah.  Really! I’ll just, er.  I’ll let you know what time to be ready on Thursday, I guess.”

“You’ll have to give me a dress code, too, Alexander!  I’ll be stressed all week if I don’t know whether it’s a suit or sweater affair!”  Despite his protests, Magnus’s voice sounds delighted and he’s tucking his fingers affectionately around the curl of Alec’s neck, so Alec has a feeling he’s done something right.

“I’ll let you know,” Alec promises, and then he can’t talk anymore, because Magnus is kicking Chairman Meow off the bed and rolling over to kiss him again.

So he supposes he has to plan a Valentine’s date now.

\-----

The next day, Magnus has a late shift, so Alec spends a rare night at his own apartment.  Spreading out in his boring grey cotton sheets, all alone as he looks at the ‘black dresser black wardrobe single table lamp’ vibe of his barely furnished bedroom, isn’t nearly as appealing as it used to be.  But at least it gives him some time to start date planning. He pulls his laptop up onto his chest while he’s sprawled out in bed, a Netflix documentary about lizards playing in another tab, and begins to sort through his ideas.

He narrows it down pretty quickly, actually.  It becomes easier when he stops reading google articles for ideas, and just thinks about _Magnus,_ who he actually knows pretty freaking well by now _._ There’s a really well-reviewed gay opera which has recently opened at a fancy theatre nearby, and Alec thinks Magnus would like that.  He also thinks Magnus would like the ‘dining in the dark’ restaurant that Lydia once mentioned, where you get food off a set menu and have to eat in pitch black so you don’t know what it is.  His third idea is to do something a little more adventurous, because he knows Magnus is kind of fearless and has done lots of things like abseiling down buildings or going to crazy events, but the downside of something like that is that they’d have less time to actually talk and just be _together_ on their date.  Which is Alec’s favourite part.  It’s still an option, though.

Happy with his shortlist, Alec decides to ask Izzy her opinion the next day, and then book everything.  He saves all the tabs, and then goes back to watching his lizard documentary, happy with his productive -- if boyfriend-lacking -- night.

So of course, everything’s ruined the next morning, when he steps into the precinct bright and early at 7am, heads right to the breakroom for his morning coffee, and Luke intercepts his path.

“Alec,” he says, slapping a file to Alec’s chest.  “We need you to work Thursday night. Captain’s orders.”

Which is Valentine’s Day.

Which is just  _ typical. _

\-----

Alec has an inter-department meeting with the Cyber Crimes unit that morning, but at lunchtime, he heads down to to the basement.  Izzy’s already out to lunch -- thankfully, since as much as he loves her, she’s way too nosy whenever he’s discussing his relationship -- so he heads right back to the lab.

Magnus is cleaning microscope slides when Alec walks in, but perks up as soon as he hears the door.

“Well, hello darling.”  He snaps off his rubber gloves and comes over to drop a kiss onto Alec’s lips.  “I thought you weren’t going to have time for lunch today. What a nice surprise.  We have leftover Thai in the fridge, want to join me?”

Alec’s never turned down Thai food in his life.

“Sure,” he says, just a little awkward around the edges, as he follows Magnus out of the lab and towards the break room, one of his hands lightly curling around Magnus’s side.  “I actually came down to talk, though. I’m, er, really sorry, but I have to work the night shift Thursday. Me and Lydia have been given this big murder case and there’s a stakeout that night which we need to monitor, so I can’t get out of it -- I totally  _ would _ if I could, but -- and I’m sorry I know we were going to do something and I really  _ was  _ making plans --”

Magnus cuts off Alec’s rambling with a finger against his lips; Alec falls silent instantly.  Magnus is giving him warm eyes, and it’s not like he’s grinning or anything, but he doesn’t look upset.

“Darling, calm down.  I completely understand.  We both get called into work at unfortunate times once in a while -- it’s part of being in a job with life-or-death consequences.”

He’s definitely right there.  This is the thing, about Alec’s career.  His whole life, being a detective has been his goal, his primary interest -- it’s never mattered that the job is pretty all-consuming, because he’s never had to balance it with anything else.  And sure, Alec’s always been the kind to sign up for overtime, and community programmes, and any sort of  _ extra  _ he could get out of his job.  It was always partly because he loves his job and wants to help people as much as possible, but also partly because he didn’t have much else  _ to  _ do.  Filling up his days was a good thing.  But now, even cutting back on those extras doesn’t give him all the time in the world, and the fact that Magnus works in the same building as him is actually one of the only reasons Alec’s managing to spend as much time with him as a normal boyfriend would.

Of course, he wouldn’t trade his job for the world.  But sometimes he imagines having a normal nine-to-five type thing, with no middle of the night casework or alternating shifts or inconveniently timed stakeouts, and can admit that he sees the appeal.

He supposes he’s just lucky that Magnus understands.

“We can do your plans another night, it doesn’t need to be the fourteenth to be special,” Magnus tells him, and Alec smiles, soft and grateful.  “In fact, why don’t I trade shifts with one of my junior techs, so I’m working Thursday night too? At least we could trade a few lingering stares over the coffee cart, or have a break room nap together if we’re lucky.”

He’s joking about that last part, but Alec thinks that sounds actually pretty much  _ perfect.   _ He’ll still have to choose his big ‘Valentine’s Date’ gesture to do another night -- but maybe he’ll just schedule all three options for different days, actually -- but at least he’ll get to spend his first Valentine’s with his boyfriend  _ and  _ hopefully catch a murderer.  Alec practically lives at the precinct anyway.  It’ll be almost like having a day-long date at home.

“That sounds amazing,” Alec says, and then leans forward to kiss Magnus as Magnus backs them into the break room towards the leftover Thai food.  “I --”

_ I love you,  _ Alec almost says, and then his throat stops abruptly around the words.  He blinks in surprise for a moment, and then just kisses Magnus again, so that Magnus won’t notice his odd reaction.  

Where, Alec thinks, did  _ that  _ come from?  It’s not that he hasn’t -- well, he’s very aware that his relationship with Magnus is heading in an irreversibly fond direction.  But Alec always thinks his words through before he says them. He’s not the type to almost blurt something out without thinking about it, and especially not something as big as  _ that. _

It’s okay, though -- he didn’t say it.  He’s not sure the limit on when it’s acceptable to make a proclamation like that, but even after three months together, he’s sure doing it in a crappy morgue break room isn’t the best move.  He’ll keep it under wraps, he decides, for a little while longer, until he figures out what on earth he’s really feeling.

\-----

Alec books tickets for the gay opera and makes a reservation at the in-the-dark restaurant, both for the next weekend when they’ll actually have days off.  After that, Thursday seems to roll around pretty quick. They end up spending the night before Valentine’s Day apart, because Alec has to go back to his own apartment and let in an electrician to finally fix his broken kitchen lights at the crack of dawn.  It’s not quite how he would have chosen to spend his first Valentine’s-morning with his boyfriend, but it’s not too bad, because two minutes before Alec’s alarm is due to go off, he’s awoken by a text alert instead.

 

[ Feb.14 -- 06:43 -- From: magnus bane <3 ]

_ HAPPY VALENTINE’S, my darling! Can’t wait to see you later, save me plenty of kisses even if we will be at work ;) And please appreciate that I woke up a full hour early to text you this before you got up.  That’s a very big compliment. _

 

[ Feb.14 -- 06:44 -- To: magnus bane <3 ]

_ happy valentines day. go back to sleep _

 

Alec knows he’s not so good at texting as Magnus is, but he’s learning that Magnus doesn’t mind that.  For good measure, though, Alec takes a selfie of himself still burrowed down between his pillows, sleep-ruffled, with the dopey smile that Magnus’s text had put on his face.  He sends that, too.

\------

Alec hits the gym and tidies his apartment and works on some cases at home, and Magnus has a training conference all through the day, so the first time Alec sees his boyfriend on Valentine’s Day is at 5PM, when he turns up at the precinct for his evening shift.  

Alec’s a professional, of course.  He clocks in, organises his desk for the night, checks with Lydia about what they’re doing.  But when she confirms that they don’t  _ really  _ have anything to do until the uniforms on the stakeout get in touch and tell them what’s going on, Alec gives in, and heads right down to the basement.

When he gets there, Magnus crosses the room in two seconds, and greets him with a kiss.

“Hey,” Alec says, smiling and letting himself be pulled through the door.  He glances behind them into the room, but there’s nobody else there; Izzy worked the day shift and there’s no new murders, so no need to call in another pathologist in the night.  They have the place to themselves. Against Magnus’s lips, Alec says, “Happy Valentine’s Day. Uh, I know I already texted that. But, yeah.”

Magnus looks amused as he detaches himself from Alec’s mouth, but keeps his hands twined in the edges of Alec’s leather jacket.  “You did, yes. But to you too.”

“This is my first Valentine’s Day with a boyfriend,” Alec says, rather unnecessarily and out of the blue.  Magnus looks amused.

“I had sort of figured that out, darling.  I suppose we’ll have to make it a good one, yes?”

All of Alec sort of goes hot, all of a sudden.  He doesn’t know if Magnus means the words to do that, but Magnus is always kind of magnetic, to Alec, and he’s struck with the increasingly common feeling that his body is being dragged towards Magnus all on its own, like there’s nothing he can do to resist.  The sight of the morgue around them fades away, and Alec is leaning in --

And then the door swings open behind them.

“How did I know I’d find  you down here,” Lydia says, and Alec can  _ hear  _ the eye-roll in her voice.  “Alec, the team just checked in.  We need to go upstairs and start the audio surveillance.”

Sometimes, Alec thinks as he peels himself away from an amused-looking Magnus and tries to get his breathing back under control, he really hates his job.

\-----

Sometimes, Alec thinks, he really loves his job.

He sits in the surveillance room with Lydia, watching the stakeout happening on the screen with their case files out in front of them.  It’s been a while since they had a particularly important case, but this murder seems to be tying into a much bigger ring of crime around the area lately, a spate of robberies hitting high-end neighborhoods and apparently taking the life of one Roland Richardson when he happened to be home at the time.  It’s proving difficult to solve and working both Alec and Lydia hard. The hard work is what he likes, though -- it reminds him that he’s good at this, and that he’s really helping people when he comes to work every day.

“If this doesn’t pan out, we’re going back to the bakery deliveries angle,” Lydia murmurs to him, her eyes trained on the screen showing the surveillance team.  She has a pen tucked behind her ear which has ruffled up a loop of her usually-flawless hair, and Alec keeps resisting the urge to tug it down again. “I still have a gut feeling about that one.”

“The exterminators make way more sense,” Alec mutters backt.  Over the past few months of working together, he and Lydia have turned out of be actually very in sync with cases, and they work way better together than he first predicted.  But every detective occasionally disagrees with their partner on a case, and this is one of those. The exterminator had served four of the six houses hit by the robberies, and is just generally shady as fuck.  It wasn’t hard to find all that out, and get a few uniforms staking out some of the other houses scheduled to be serviced by that company.

Of course, while he’s thinking about all that, Alec is also infinitely aware that Magnus is just three floors below them right now, and it sort of feels like his whole body is humming with knowing that.

He doesn’t let it affect his work.  Well, he doesn’t think he does. He  _ tries  _ not to.  And Alec does have a bit of a one track mind when he gets into the zone, so it’s not hard to put the case at the front of his head when they’ve got stuff to do.

It’s when they  _ don’t  _ have stuff to do that it becomes a problem.  Two hours into their shift, the three buildings being surveilled all still have their occupants inside, making it pretty unlikely they’ll be hit.  It’s seven PM, and almost all the other robberies happened between eight and midnight -- one house got hit at six, which is the only reason they started surveillance early.  But it’s unlikely that anything’s gonna happen for another hour at least.

And Lydia’s there, anyway.  And could summon him in a moment if he needed to get back upstairs and work on the case.

And it’s Valentine’s Day.

And his boyfriend is about twenty seven feet below him right now, in an empty lab.

Alec’s leg starts bouncing under the table.

To be fair, Lydia’s a very good sport.  She puts up with it for at least ten minutes, as Alec looks aimlessly between their case files and the empty surveillance screen, shuffles papers, clicks his pen, stares at the clock, clears his throat, shuffles more papers, checks his watch, and bounces his leg some more.  It’s when his knee finally knocks into their little metal table hard enough to almost slosh her mug of coffee over the edge that she finally slams her hands down on the table, looks at him, and rolls her eyes.

“Oh, just go and take your break already,” she huffs.  “It’ll be an hour til anything happens anyway. I’ll hold down the fort.”

Alec shoots her the most grateful look he’s probably ever given anyone.

“Are you sure?”  He feels a little bit like he’s being a bad cop, but he would sort of rather just be a good boyfriend, right then.  “Just call if anything happens, yeah? I’ll just be downstairs.”

“I  _ know,”  _ she says, but it sounds more like a laugh than actual irritation.  “Just make sure he’s still getting those blood samples analysed for us, yeah?  Don’t distract him with your dick.”

“ _ Lydia.”   _ Alec tries to sound reprimanding, even as he’s standing up and abandoning his case files.  “We’re not gonna --  _ that,  _ in a morgue.”

\-----

Magnus is stood at the door in his intricately decorated labcoat and glittery eyeliner, and Alec wants to do  _ that  _ in the morgue.

_ Calm down,  _ he tells his brain, even as Magnus’s face lights up and he moves out of the lab, into the centre of the room, to once again greet Alec with a kiss.  Alec knows they’re crossing the border into unprofessionalism more and more with each passing day, but they’re not  _ usually  _ this bad with kissing on the job -- he just thinks they kind of get a special pass because it’s Valentine’s Day.  And it’s the night shift, so that’s not much labwork even going on. And because they’ve spent two nights apart this week, which is rare and has left him feeling kind of deprived of Magnus’s touch.  A little too keyed-up.

He thinks Magnus feels it too, if the way Magnus tucks his hands right under the hem of Alec’s shirt and against the warm skin of his waist is any indication.

“Are you, uh, working right now?” Alec asks, having to clear his throat in the middle of the question when Magnus’s thumb presses harder into his skin and makes his voice crack.

“I’m waiting on some proteins to sequence, but I don’t have much to do until then.”  They’re stood right by an autopsy table, in the middle of the clinically bleak morgue, three feet away from the wall of refrigerated cabinets with literal corpses inside.  It’s not a romantic space.

But Magnus looks at him, and Alec absolutely buzzes.

“I’m on break,” he informs Magnus, while leaning closer.  Their lips don’t quite touch but Alec moves through the air in front of Magnus’s mouth, so close he can almost imagine the feeling of Magnus’s lips, so close the air between them gets hot.  “Lydia’s going to buzz me if anything happens, but I probably have an hour.”

Magnus is looking at Alec’s mouth.  All Alec can think is that it’s Valentine’s, and the evening hour is making everything feel isolated and secret, and they haven’t hooked up for three days now.  He  _ wants  _ a lot.

Magnus brushes his thumb over Alec’s waist, and Alec gives in, and kisses him.

He used to think that after a few months of regularly kissing Magnus, it would get less intense, but that hasn’t happened yet.  They have different sorts of kisses, of course, the little ones which just feel like warmth and the sleepy ones that barely process in their minds and the lingering little ones which just make Alec’s toes spark, but ones like  _ this _ \-- well, these are something else altogether.  These kisses make it feel like the ceiling is caving in on them, like the outside world is melting away from the heat that curls just between their bodies, like Alec’s head is pounding and pounding and none of it will go away until he gets Magnus’s dick in his general vicinity.

His eyes have drifted shut, and it’s so intense that Alec doesn’t notice Magnus is pushing him by the waist, pressing into the kiss, until Alec’s back suddenly slams into the cold metal of the refrigerator wall behind them.  There’s probably a cadaver just on the other side of the wall from him, and yet, somehow, Alec’s boyfriend is so hot and kissing him so well that Alec has half an erection.

“I’m sorry,” Alec mumbles into Magnus’s mouth, pulling away from their deep kiss and giving him a few short sharp pecks, “this isn’t romantic at all,” another kiss, “but I really wanna hook up right now,” he drags Magnus’s bottom lip between his teeth, “but it’s way too creepy to do it in here.”

Magnus bursts out laughing, which only  _ slightly  _ ruins the mood.  Alec’s grinning, too, as he pulls just the tiniest bit away from Magnus, his whole body still pulsing with the kiss.

“I’d suggest my lab, but there are far too many delicate samples in a small space already, and I don’t trust your lanky limbs not to knock them over.”  Magnus is barely shorter than Alec, but he bats playfully at Alec’s arms as if they’re a great threat. 

“Break room?” Alec says, mostly his dick talking.  He can’t quite believe he’s suggesting doing  _ stuff  _ at work.  He feels feverish and slightly insane and like he’s maybe living the rebellious teenage phase he never really had.

“This is still a precinct, Alexander.  There’s a surveillance camera in there, and I  _ don’t _ think we want to give Maureen at the front desk an eyeful.”

They look at each other.  Alec knows this is the moment where he  _ should  _ say something responsible, like ‘let’s cool down’ and ‘we can wait six hours and do this later’ and ‘the universe is telling me not to suck your dick in a police station.’  But in six hours it won’t be Valentine’s Day. And Alec sort of feels like he’s living in an alternate universe of romance and boyfriend milestones and no consequences, right now.

“Bathroom?” he suggests, his heartbeat going wild in his chest.  

There’s a grand total of one toilet cubicle off the edge of the morgue’s break room -- there’s only ever really a couple of employees between the lab and the morgue at any one time, so not much need for more space than that, Alec figures.  He’s never spent a whole lot of time thinking about it, but he can’t help but feel pretty grateful for it being there at all as he pushes Magnus inside, pulling the door shut behind them. 

Admittedly, it’s not that romantic.  But Magnus is laughing happily, pretty peals of laughter, as his fingers twist into Alec’s hair, and that feels way more important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope u liked it!!! i couldn't pass up a chance to write a valentine's day chap :'))
> 
> aand, for a brief moment of self-promo, if you like my writing and wanna see me actually take my career seriously, you can follow my poetry/original writing blog at [maiamoen](http://maiamoen.tumblr.com)! i'm also looking for writing/poetry themed blogs to follow so leave me your url if you want!!
> 
> (also my malec/fandom mess tumblr is [here](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com) as usual lmao)
> 
> leave a comment if you liked the chap!!!


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